The fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.
EpicurusRead
Pleasure is our first and kindred good. It is the starting point of every choice and of every aversion, and to it we always come back, inasmuch as we make feeling the rule by which to judge of every good thing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Pleasure is fundamental to human choice and serves as the standard for evaluating the goodness of experiences.
This quote by Epicurus emphasizes the central role of pleasure in human life, suggesting that it is not only our primary good but also the basis for our decisions and aversions. According to Epicurean philosophy, our experiences are judged by how pleasurable they are, indicating that the pursuit of pleasure is a natural instinct that shapes the way we engage with the world around us.
Themes
PleasureChoiceGoodFeelingJudgment
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussing ethical theories.
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
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