Diffuse, vapid, rhetorical, but enchanting. Their great crime was in their calumnies of Epicurus and misrepresentations of his doctrines in which we lament to see the candid character of Cicero engaging as an accomplice. Epictetus indeed, has given us what was good of the stoics all beyond, of their dogmas, being hypocrisy and grimace. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us. Thomas Jefferson- As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurean.Please help us add to this list and eventually we'll probably put it together in a Nate style collection - unless Nate himself has done so already and I have forgoten! I know there are other great quotes from Homer, Ovid, potentially Virgil, and many many others which are either outright admiring or at least grudgingly recognizing the impact that Epicurus had. We've started with just two, but please help us add to the list, as doubtless we will use it many times. I am surprised to say that I don't think we have put together such a list before, but I know that many of us have favorite quotes from figures in later history that we ought to include. Velleius From "On The Nature of the Gods"Īs part of the work that Kalosyni is putting together for "Epicurus Week," the first section is devoted to quotes of famous men *about* the significance of Epicurus.Biography of Epicurus By Diogenes Laertius.Epistemology - The Science of Knowledge.Personal Outlines of Epicurean Philosophy.Local Group Planning And Formation (Meetup, Etc.).It takes a wise man to discover a wise man. The great thieves lead away the little thief. He has the most who is most content with the least. Stand a little less between me and the sun. When I look upon seamen, men of science and philosophers, man is the wisest of all beings when I look upon priests and prophets nothing is as contemptible as man. I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance. The foundation of every state is the education of its youth. What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others. It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little. The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted. I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world. Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music. Most men are within a finger’s breadth of being mad. The vine bears three kinds of grapes: the first of pleasure, the second of intoxication, the third of disgust. I threw my cup away when I saw a child drinking from his hands at the trough. We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.Ī friend is one soul abiding in two bodies. Man is the most intelligent of the animals – and the most silly. The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them. I am called a dog because I fawn on those who give me anything, I yelp at those who refuse, and I set my teeth in rascals. I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be. It was a favorite expression of Theophrastus that time was the most valuable thing that a man could spend. Wise kings generally have wise counselors and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one. I have nothing to ask but that you would remove to the other side, that you may not, by intercepting the sunshine, take from me what you cannot give.Īs a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task. It was said of Diogenes that throughout his life he “searched with a lantern in the daylight for an honest man.” And though Diogenes apparently did not find an honest man, he had, in the process, “exposed the vanity and selfishness of man.” His goal was to show people how pathetic their superficial lives were and how dishonest society was. He was an unconventional and controversial philosopher. Antisthenes believed that happiness was only obtained by “complete independence”, throwing away comfortable life and living with nothing and in extreme poverty, eating and drinking with his hands only. Diogenes was a pupil of Antisthenes, a disciple of Socrates.
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