We must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it.
— Epicurus
Justice... is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed.
It is not so much our friends' help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.
Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.
There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men.
I never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.
We do not so much need the help of our friends as the confidence of their help in need.
It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls.
Both old and young alike ought to seek wisdom: the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come.
Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.
If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.
Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.
The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.
The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.
It is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a pallet, than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble.
If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul.
Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.
The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.
A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs.
It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly. And it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life.
Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.
Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.
