The fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.
EpicurusRead
The summit of pleasure is the elimination of all that gives pain.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True pleasure comes from removing pain and discomfort from our lives.
This quote by Epicurus highlights the philosophical idea that the highest form of pleasure is not just the pursuit of enjoyment or luxury, but rather the absence of suffering and distress. It suggests that achieving true happiness involves minimizing pain and challenges in our lives, leading to a more fulfilling existence.
Themes
PleasurePainHappinessPhilosophyEpicurus
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion about finding inner peace, one might quote Epicurus to emphasize the importance of reducing suffering.
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
It doesn't all have to be about giving money. Sometimes it's a smile that changes the life of one little kid.
Masai UjiriRead
The only truly affluent are those who do not want more than they have.
Erich FrommRead
To see the ball, to run after it, makes me the happiest man in the world
Diego MaradonaRead
I had thought joy to be rather synonymous with happiness, but it seems now to be far less vulnerable than happiness. Joy seems to be a part of an unconditional wish to live, not holding back because life may not meet our preferences and expectations. Joy seems to be a function of the willingness to accept the whole, and to show up to meet with whatever is there. It has a kind of invincibility that attachment to any particular outcome would deny us.
Rachel Naomi RemenRead
Happiness is brief. It will not stay. God batters at its sails.
EuripidesRead
I take it not only a day at a time, but a moment at a time, and keep it at that pace. If you can be happy right now, then you’ll always be happy, because it’s always in the now
Willie NelsonRead