Epicurus Quotes on Knowledge
Epicurus's epistemology — the canonic — is preserved chiefly through the Letter to Herodotus, the Principal Doctrines, and the doxographic summaries in Diogenes Laertius and Sextus Empiricus. The doctrine that all sensations are true, in the specific sense that each impression is a faithful registration of the atomic films (eidola) that produced it, locates perceptual error not in sensation itself but in the judgment the mind subsequently superimposes upon it. The further criteria of preconceptions (prolēpseis) and feelings of pleasure and pain supply the corresponding instruments by which the wise person tests propositions about the unobserved and orients the practical life toward the stable pleasure (ataraxia) that constitutes the human good.
Quotes
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Attributed to Epicurus:
“We must not pretend to study philosophy, but really study it; for it is not the appearance of health we need, but real health.”
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Attributed to Epicurus:
“Empty is that philosopher's argument by which no human suffering is therapeutically treated.”
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“ἄφοβον ὁ θεός, ἀνύποπτον ὁ θάνατος, καὶ τἀγαθὸν μὲν εὔκτητον, τὸ δὲ δεινὸν εὐεκκαρτέρητον.”
Don't fear god , Don't worry about death ; What is good is easy to get, and What is terrible is easy to endure. (tr. D. S. Hutchinson, 1994 ) The Tetrapharmakos , or "four-part cure", a summary of the first four Principal Doctrines . Composed by an unidentified Epicurean philosopher ( Usener 1887:69 ); reported by Philodemus , P.Herc. 1005, IV.10–14. -
“Δικαιοσύνης καρπὸς μέγιστος ἀταραξία .”
The greatest reward of righteousness is peace of mind . Attributed to Epicurus by Clement of Alexandria in Stromata -
“From the esplanade wall at Oenoanda , now in Turkey , as recorded by Diogenes of Oenoanda”
Luxurious food and drinks , in no way protect you from harm. Wealth beyond what is natural, is no more use than an overflowing container. Real value is not generated by theaters, and baths, perfumes or ointments, but by philosophy . -
“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 . And to say that the season for studying philosophy has not yet come, or that it is past and gone, is like saying that the season for happiness is not yet or that it is now no more. Therefore, both old and young alike ought to seek ”
Letter to Menoeceus" , as translated in Stoic and Epicurean (1910) by Robert Drew Hicks, p. 167 -
“τὸ φρικωδέστατον οὖν τῶν κακῶν ὁ θάνατος οὐθὲν πρὸς ἡμᾶς͵ ἐπειδήπερ ὅταν μὲν ἡμεῖς ὦμεν͵ ὁ θάνατος οὐ πάρεστιν͵ ὅταν δὲ ὁ θάνατος παρῇ͵ τόθ΄ ἡμεῖς οὐκ ἐσμέν.”
Death , therefore, the most awful of evils , is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not. | Letter to Menoeceus" , as translated in Stoic and Epicurean (1910) by Robert Drew Hicks, p. 169 -
“Chance seldom interferes with the wise man; his greatest and highest interests have been, are, and will be, directed by reason throughout his whole life . (16).”
Sovereign Maxims -
“Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life , by far the most important is friendship . (28)”
Sovereign Maxims -
“Since it is every man's interest to be happy through the whole of life, it is the wisdom of every one to employ philosophy in the search of felicity without delay; and there cannot be a greater folly, than to be always beginning to live.”
Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers(Half-Hours with the Freethinkers) -
“It is impossible for someone to dispel his fears about the most important matters if he doesn't know the nature of the universe but still gives some credence to myths . So without the study of nature there is no enjoyment of pure pleasure. (12)”
Sovereign Maxims | Variant translation: One cannot rid himself of his primal fears if he does not understand the nature of the universe, but instead suspects the truth of some mythical story. So without the study of nat