1001Philosophers

Epicurus vs Marcus Aurelius on Life

Epicurus's good life is the moderate, friendly life of the Garden, withdrawn from political ambition and freed from superstitious fear of the gods. Marcus's good life is the disciplined life of an emperor on campaign, embracing his station as his portion of nature's allotment. The contrast between Epicurean withdrawal and Stoic engagement is the great Hellenistic disagreement about how a wise person should be situated in the world.

About this topic

The question of what makes a life worth living runs through almost every philosophical tradition. Ancient philosophers identified the good life with virtue, contemplation, or the absence of disturbance; medieval thinkers tied it to the love of God and the order of creation; modern philosophers have located meaning in autonomy, projects, relationships, or self-creation. The quotes collected here range across all these strands, from Stoic counsels of resilience to existentialist treatments of meaning under conditions of uncertainty.

For a side-by-side overview of the two philosophers more broadly, see the full Epicurus vs Marcus Aurelius comparison. To browse philosophy more widely on this theme, see the Life quotes hub.

Representative quotes on life

Epicurus on life

  • Attributed to Epicurus:

    “Of all the things which wisdom acquires to produce the blessedness of the complete life, by far the greatest is the possession of friendship.”

  • Attributed to Epicurus:

    “Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for.”

  • Attributed to Epicurus:

    “Live in obscurity.”

  • Attributed to Epicurus:

    “Empty is that philosopher's argument by which no human suffering is therapeutically treated.”

  • Attributed to Epicurus:

    “It is not so much our friends' help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us.”

Marcus Aurelius on life

  • “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”

    The universe is flux, life is opinion.

  • Attributed to Marcus Aurelius:

    “Begin each day by telling yourself: today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness — all of them due to the offenders' ignorance of what is good or evil.”

  • Attributed to Marcus Aurelius:

    “Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”

  • Attributed to Marcus Aurelius:

    “Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, and do so with all your heart.”

  • Attributed to Marcus Aurelius:

    “Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.”

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