Epicurus

The greatest security is freedom from disturbance.

The pleasure which is derived from the gratification of a desire is not a true pleasure, but only the removal of a pain.

It is not possible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is not possible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living a pleasant life.

The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the removal of all pain. When such pleasure is present, so long as it is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mind or of both together.

A man who is not content with a little is content with nothing.

The wise man is not troubled by the absence of things he needs, but by the presence of things he does not need.

It is better to be free from fear living on a little, than to have a troubled abundance.

The most important element in the happiness of the whole life is the acquisition of friendship.

We must laugh and philosophize at the same time, and manage our households, and use our other faculties, and never cease to utter the words of true philosophy.

Empty is the argument of the philosopher by which no human suffering is therapeutically treated. For just as there is no profit in medicine if it does not expel the diseases of the body, so there is no profit in philosophy either, if it does not expel the suffering of the soul.

It is impossible for someone to dispel his fears about the most important matters if he does not know the nature of the universe but still suspects something of the stories told in myths. So that without the study of nature there is no enjoyment of unmixed pleasures.

The pleasant life is produced not by drinking and continuous parties, nor by the enjoyment of boys and women, nor by fish and the other items on a luxurious table, but by sober reasoning which searches out the causes of every choice and avoidance, and drives away those opinions through which the greatest tumults take possession of the soul.

He who says that all things happen of necessity cannot criticize one who says that not all things happen of necessity.

The wise man is not afraid of death, for he knows that while he is, death is not, and when death is, he is not.

We must not violate nature, but obey her; and we shall obey her if we fulfill the necessary desires and also the natural, provided they bring no harm, but sternly reject the harmful.

It is not the young man who is happy, but the old man who has lived well.

The man who has learned the limits of life knows that it is easy to obtain that which removes the pain of want and makes the whole of life complete. So he has no need of things which involve struggle.

The most secure protection against men is friendship.

The wise man, when he has adjusted himself to the things that are necessary, will not be troubled by the things that are not necessary.

The flesh cries out to be saved from hunger, thirst, and cold. For if a man is safe from these, and is confident of being safe, he might vie even with Zeus for happiness.