The fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.
EpicurusRead
Neither one should hesitate about dedicating oneself to philosophy when young, nor should get tired of doing it when one's old, because no one is ever too young or too old to reach one's soul's healthy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Philosophy is a lifelong pursuit that is relevant at any age.
Epicurus emphasizes that engaging with philosophy is a timeless endeavor that individuals should embrace regardless of their age. He suggests that both young and old can benefit from philosophical inquiry, as it fosters a deeper connection to one's inner self and promotes a more fulfilling life. The pursuit of wisdom and understanding is portrayed as essential for achieving a well-rounded and healthy soul.
Themes
PhilosophyWisdomSelf-DiscoveryAgeSoul
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about personal growth and lifelong learning.
More from Epicurus
All quotes →Accustom yourself to believe that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply awareness, and death is the privation of all awareness; therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality. For life has no terror; for those who thoroughly apprehend that there are no terrors for them in ceasing to live.
EpicurusRead
The wise man who has become accustomed to necessities knows better how to share with others than how to take from them, so great a treasure of self-sufficiency has he found.
EpicurusRead
We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.
EpicurusRead
I was not, I was, I am not, I care not. (Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo)
EpicurusRead
Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.
EpicurusRead
Similar quotes
I was born in South Africa during apartheid, a system of laws that made it illegal for people to mix in South Africa. And this was obviously awkward because I grew up in a mixed family. My mother's a black woman, South African Xhosa woman... and my father's Swiss, from Switzerland.
Trevor NoahRead
Only old Benjamin professed to remember every detail of his long life and to know that things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse--hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life.
George OrwellRead
Sometimes with the most intense pain a paralysis of sensibility occurs. The soul disintegrates--hence the deadly frost--the free power of the mind--the shattering, ceaseless wit of this kind of despair. There is no inclination for anything any more--the person is alone, like a baleful power--as he has no connection with the rest of the world he consumes himself gradually--and in accordance with his own principle he is--misanthropic and misotheos.
NovalisRead
There are four things that we ought to do with the Word of God - admit it as the Word of God, commit it to our hearts and minds, submit to it, and transmit it to the world.
William WilberforceRead
To the truly ethical man, all of life is sacred, including forms of life that from the human point of view may seem lower than ours.
Albert SchweitzerRead
I love to go to the zoo. But not on Sunday. I don't like to see the people making fun of the animals, when it should be the other way around.
Ernest HemingwayRead