EpicureanFriends - Classical Epicurean Philosophy

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson, to William Short, October 31, 1819
I take the liberty of observing that you are not a true disciple of our master Epicurus, in indulging the indolence to which you say you are yielding. One of his canons, you know, was that “that indulgence which prevents a greater pleasure, or produces a greater pain, is to be avoided.” Your love of repose will lead, in its progress, to a suspension of healthy exercise, a relaxation of mind, an indifference to everything around you, and finally to a debility of body, and hebetude of mind, the farthest of all things from the happiness which the well-regulated indulgences of Epicurus ensure; fortitude, you know is one of his four cardinal virtues. That teaches us to meet and surmount difficulties; not to fly from them, like cowards; and to fly, too, in vain, for they will meet and arrest us at every turn of our road. Weigh this matter well; brace yourself up....
Epicurus Defies Religion - Lucretius Quote

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Who Was Epicurus and What Did He Really Teach?

Epicurus (341—270 BC) was a Greek philosopher who founded one of the most influential and enduring philosophical schools of the ancient world. After recruiting a network of like-minded friends and colleagues in the provincial areas of Greece, he moved his school to Athens itself, where he taught for decades in a school that came to be known as “the Garden.” Epicurus built his philosophy on three interlocking foundations:

  • Physics: The universe is entirely natural, and as a whole it has always existed, not created or controlled by supernatural forces. Nothing is ever created from nothing, and there is no life after death or reason to be concerned about any supernatural forces governing our lives.
  • Canonics: Reality and Truth are established by the faculties given to us by Nature, which are our five senses, our feelings of pleasure and pain, and our anticipations (a natural capacity to recognize patterns). Knowledge does not and cannot come from divine revelation or dialectical logic disconnected from the evidence we obtain through these natural faculties.
  • Ethics: The guides of life are the feelings of Pleasure and Pain. While we are alive, everything we experience in life, whether mental or physical, is felt by us as either pleasing or painful. We do not always choose each immediate pleasure, or avoid every immediate pain, because our ultimate success in life is not judged by any single moment but by the predominance of pleasure over pain in our lives as a whole. It is the feeling of Pleasure - mental and physical and all positive feeling in all its forms - that gives meaning to life rather than Virtue, Piety, Logic, or any other man-made abstraction.

The Physics, Canonics, and Ethics of Epicurus are mutually-reinforcing. Epicurus was insistent that you cannot understand how to live well until you understand the nature of the universe, and you cannot understand the universe without the right tools for separating true from false. Epicurean philosophy stands as a whole or not at all.

How Has Epicurus Been Misread?

If you have encountered Epicurus before — in a philosophy class, an article, a popular book — there is a substantial chance that what you read was shaped by one of four traditions that have systematically distorted Epicurus' philosophy.

Stoicism was Epicurus’s most direct ancient rival. The Stoics held that virtue alone is the good, that pleasure is at best irrelevant and at worst corrupting, and that the wise man accepts fate with equanimity. Stoic writers — including Seneca, Plutarch, and Cicero in his own voice — wrote extensively about Epicurus, often in ways that portrayed him as essentially a failed Stoic: someone who used the word “pleasure” but really meant something very like Stoic tranquility. This portrait is dishonest to the texts.

Platonism taught that the highest realities are not the things we experience with our senses but abstract, eternal Forms accessible only through pure reason. Platonic philosophy elevates the abstract over the real, demotes the body as a prison of the soul, and treats sensory pleasure as philosophically unworthy. Scholars shaped by Platonic assumptions have consistently read Epicurean pleasure as something more abstract and less embodied than Epicurus actually described.

Supernatural religion — above all the Judeo-Christian tradition — treats pleasure as morally suspect, prizes self-denial as a virtue, and promises reward and punishment after death. The caricature of Epicurus as a crude hedonist was already being promoted by Christian apologists in the second century AD, and it has never fully gone away. Reading Epicurus through a framework that assumes bodily pleasure is base and that the highest good is spiritual produces a distorted picture at every point.

Humanism, in the broad modern sense, substitutes idealism, rational self-restraint, and service to others for pleasure as the foundational category of ethics. Humanist readings of Epicurus tend to emphasize moderation, civic duty, and the subordination of desire to idealism — importing assumptions that are foreign to Epicurean philosophy and transforming it into something closer to Kantian ethics than to what the texts actually say.

All four of these traditions share one structural feature: each posits a highest good that transcends the natural guidance of pleasure and pain. Whether that highest good is called Virtue, the Form of the Good, God’s Will, Rational Dignity, or Good Without God, it is always something other than the pleasure that Nature has actually provided as our guide. Epicurus rejected each of these frameworks completely, and understanding his philosophy requires being willing to examine them critically rather than importing them as unexamined assumptions.

We pursue Epicurus' original teachings by prioritizing what he himself wrote to his friends Herodotus, Pythocles, and Menoeceus, and in his Principal Doctrines. We also prioritize the works of his primary followers such as Lucretius and Cicero's Epicurean spokesmen Torquatus and Velleius.

Keeping the focus on Pleasure answers the question of what is the highest good, but leaves unanswered the practical question of "Which pleasures?" Because Epicurus held that all mental and physical experiences in life fall within either pleasure or pain, the scope of choice is wide. Physical pleasures are necessary for life, but mental pleasures are necessary for happiness. The pleasures we choose to pursue will differ according to individual circumstances, but some circumstances are universal: All of us eventually die and cease to exist. There are no supernatural forces or rules. Under these universal conditions, Epicurus teaches that Nature tells us to pursue maximum net pleasure -- not minimum total pain. Some modern writers argue that Epicurus taught pursuit of minimum total pain as his overriding goal. This is false, as presented here on this site in articles such as Against Katastematic Supremacy: Pleasure Is a Unified Good, Not a House Divided Against Itself or others listed below. Epicurean happiness embraces active engagement with life and willing acceptance of pains that lead to greater net pleasure. It rejects retreat, resignation, and avoidance of all pain at every turn.

Think about how you will judge your life when it nears its end. If you are the type who will be happiest if you can say that you lived your life pursuing the maximum net pleasure that was possible to you, then you are in the right place here at EpicureanFriends. If you agree that pleasure is the highest good and you would like to join us and participate in our work, check here for our Rules, Policies, and Terms of Use and consider setting up an account.

Epicurean Quote of the Day

  1. That which is blessed and indestructible has no troubles itself, nor does it give trouble to anyone else, so that it is not affected by feelings of anger or gratitude. For all such things imply weakness. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  2. The removal of all pain is the limit of the magnitude of pleasures. Wherever pleasure is present, as long as it is there, pain or distress or their combination is absent. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  3. Pain does not last continuously in the flesh: when acute it is there for a very short time, while the pain which just exceeds the pleasure in the flesh does not persist for many days; and chronic illnesses contain an excess of pleasure in the flesh over pain. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  4. It is impossible to live pleasantly without living prudently, honorably and justly; nor is it possible to live prudently, honorably and justly without living pleasantly. And whoever lacks this cannot live pleasantly. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  5. To secure protection from men anything is a natural good, by which you may be able to attain this end. (Bailey)
  6. No pleasure is something bad per se: but the causes of some pleasures produce stresses many times greater than the pleasures. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  7. If every pleasure were condensed in < location > and duration and distributed all over the structure or the dominant parts of our nature, pleasures would never differ from one another. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  8. Were we not upset by the worries that celestial phenomena and death might matter to us, and also by failure to appreciate the limits of pains and desires, we would have no need for natural philosophy. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  9. There is no way to dispel the fear about matters of supreme importance, for someone who does not know what the nature of the universe is but retains some of the fears based on mythology. Hence without natural philosophy there is no way of securing the purity of our pleasures. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  10. There is no benefit in creating security with respect to men while retaining worries about things up above, things beneath the earth, and generally things in the infinite. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  11. The most unalloyed source of protection from men, which is secured to some extent by a certain force of expulsion, is in fact the immunity which results from a quiet life and the retirement from the world. (Bailey)
  12. Nature's wealth is both limited and easy to achieve; but the wealth defined by groundless opinions falls into an infinite abyss. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  13. In but few things chance hinders a wise man, but the greatest and most important matters reason has ordained and throughout the whole period of life does and will ordain. (Bailey)
  14. The just < life > is most free from disturbance, but the unjust life is full of the greatest disturbance. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  15. The pleasure in the flesh does not increase when once the pain of need has been removed, but it is only varied. And the limit of pleasure in the mind is produced by rationalizing those very things and their congeners which used to present the mind with its greatest fears. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  16. Infinite time contains no greater pleasure than limited time, if one measures, by reason, the limits of pleasure. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  17. He who has learned the limits of life knows that that which removes the pain due to want, and makes the whole of life complete, is easy to obtain, so that there is no need of actions which involve competition. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  18. We must consider both the real purpose and all the evidence of direct perception, to which we always refer the conclusions of opinion; otherwise, all will be full of doubt and confusion. (Bailey)
  19. If you fight against all sensations, you will not have a standard against which to judge even those of them you say are mistaken. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  20. If on each occasion, instead of referring your actions to the end of nature, you turn to some other nearer standard when you are making a choice or an avoidance, your actions will not be consistent with your principles. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  21. Those desires which do not bring pain when unfulfilled are not necessary, and the longing for them is easily dispersed, when to achieve them seems difficult or when they seem likely to produce harm. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  22. Of the things wisdom acquires for the blessedness of life as a whole, far the greatest is the possession of friendship. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  23. Confidence that nothing terrible lasts for ever or even for a long time is produced by the same judgment that also achieves the insight that friendship's security within those very limitations is perfectly complete. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  24. Of desires, some are natural and necessary, others are natural and not necessary, and others are neither natural nor necessary but are due to idle imagination. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  25. Whenever intense passion is present in natural desires which do not lead to pain if they are unfulfilled, these have their origin in empty opinion; and the reason for their persistence is not their own nature but the empty opinion of the person. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  26. Nature's justice is a guarantee of utility with a view to not harming one another and not being harmed. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  27. Nothing is just or unjust in relation to those creatures which were unable to make contracts over not harming one another and not being harmed: so too with all peoples which were unable or unwilling to make contracts over not harming and not being harmed. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  28. Justice was never anything per se, but a contract, regularly arising at some place or other in people's dealings with one another, over not harming or being harmed. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  29. Injustice is something bad not per se but in the fear that arises from the suspicion that one will not escape the notice of those who have the authority to punish such things. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  30. No one who secretly infringes any of the terms of a mutual contract made with a view to not harming and not being harmed can be confident that he will escape detection even if he does so countless times. For right up to his death it is unclear whether he will actually escape. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  31. Taken generally, justice is the same for all, since it is something useful in people's social relationships. But in the light of what is peculiar to a region and to the whole range of determinants, the same thing does not turn out to be just for all. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  32. 40] Those who had the power to eliminate all fear of their neighbors lived together accordingly in the most pleasurable way, through having the firmest pledge of security, and after enjoying the fullest intimacy, they did not grieve over someone's untimely death as if it called for commiseration. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  33. It is hard for an evil-doer to escape detection, but to obtain security for escaping is impossible. (Bailey)
  34. Remember that you are of mortal nature and have a limited time to live and have devoted yourself to discussions on nature for all time and eternity and have seen 'things that are now and are to come and have been.' (Bailey)
  35. For most men rest is stagnation and activity madness. (Bailey)
  36. We value our characters as something peculiar to ourselves, whether they are good and we are esteemed by men, or not; so ought we to value the characters of others, if they are well-disposed to us. (Bailey)
  37. No one when he sees evil deliberately chooses it, but is enticed by it as being good in comparison with a greater evil and so pursues it. (Bailey)
  38. Remove sight, association and contact, and the passion of love is at an end. (Bailey)
  39. Forgetting the good that has been he has become old this very day. (Bailey)
  40. We must not compel nature but persuade her; and we shall persuade her by pursuing the necessary desires, and the natural ones if they do no harm, but harshly rebuking the harmful ones. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  41. All friendship is an intrinsic virtue, but it originates from benefiting. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  42. Dreams have no divine character nor any prophetic force, but they originate from the influx of images. (Bailey)
  43. Poverty, when measured by nature's end, is great wealth, but unlimited wealth is great poverty. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  44. You must understand that whether the discourse be long or short it tends to the same end. (Bailey)
  45. In other pursuits the reward comes at the end and is hard won. But in philosophy enjoyment keeps pace with knowledge. It is not learning followed by entertainment, but learning and entertainment at the same time. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  46. Neither those who are over-eager for friendship nor those who are hesitant should be approved, but it is also necessary to take risks for the sake of friendship. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  47. I would rather speak with the frankness of a natural philosopher, and reveal the things which are expedient to all mankind, even if no one is going to understand me, than assent to the received opinions and reap the adulation lavishly bestowed by the multitude. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  48. Against other things it is possible to obtain security. But when it comes to death we human beings all live in an unwalled city. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  49. The veneration of the Wise man is a great blessing to those who venerate him. (Bailey)
  50. The flesh's cry is not to be hungry or thirsty or cold. For one who is in these states and expects to remain so could rival even Zeus in happiness. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  51. It is not our friends' help that we need so much as the confidence of their help. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  52. One should not spoil what one has by wanting what one has not, but should remember that what one has was also wished for. (Bailey)
  53. Epicurus' life when compared to other men's in respect of gentleness and self-sufficiency might be thought a mere legend. (Bailey)
  54. Nature is weak towards evil, not towards good: because it is saved by pleasures, but destroyed by pains. (Bailey)
  55. He is a little man in all respects who has many good reasons for quitting life. (Bailey)
  56. One who is always looking for help is not a friend, nor is one who never associates help with friendship. For the former trades sentiment for recompense, while the latter cuts off confident expectation in regard to the future. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  57. The man who says that all events are necessitated has no ground for criticizing the man who says that not all events are necessitated. For according to him this is itself a necessitated event. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  58. We should laugh, philosophize, and handle our household affairs and other personal matters, all at the same time, and never cease making the utterances which stem from correct philosophy. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  59. It takes just the same time for the greatest good to be created and for it to be enjoyed. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  60. The love of money, if unjustly gained, is impious, and, if justly, shameful; for it is unseemly to be merely parsimonious even with justice on one's side. (Bailey)
  61. The wise man when he has accommodated himself to straits knows better how to give than to receive: so great is the treasure of self-sufficiency which he has discovered. (Bailey)
  62. Natural philosophy does not make people boastful and loud-mouthed, nor flaunters of culture, the thing so hotly competed for among the multitude, but modest and self-sufficient, and proud at their own goods, not at those of their circumstances. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  63. Let us completely rid ourselves of our bad habits as if they were evil men who have long done us great harm. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  64. We must try to make the end of the journey better than the beginning, as long as we are journeying, but when we come to the end, we must be happy and content. (Bailey)
  65. Friendship dances round the world announcing to us all that we should wake up and felicitate one another. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  66. We must envy no one: for the good do not deserve envy and the bad, the more they prosper, the more they injure themselves. (Bailey)
  67. One should not pretend to philosophize, but actually philosophize. For what we need is not the semblance of health, but real health. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  68. We must heal our misfortunes by the grateful recollection of what has been and by the recognition that it is impossible to make undone what has been done. (Bailey)
  69. We must liberate ourselves from the prison of routine business and politics. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  70. What is insatiable is not the stomach, as people say, but the false opinion concerning its unlimited filling. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  71. Most beautiful too is the sight of those near and dear to us, when our original kinship makes us of one mind; for such sight is a great incitement to this end. (Bailey)
  72. There can be refinement even on slender means, and one who fails to take account of it is in a similar position to someone who goes astray through ignoring limits. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  73. Let us feel for our friends not by mourning but by thinking of them. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  74. A free life cannot acquire great wealth, because this is not easy without servitude to mobs or monarchs; yet it possesses all things in unfailing abundance, and if it does achieve great wealth, this too it can share so as to win the goodwill of one's neighbors. (Bailey)
  75. Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little. (Bailey)
  76. The ungrateful greed of the soul makes the creature everlastingly desire varieties of dainty food. (Bailey)
  77. Let nothing be done in your life which will bring you fear if it should be known to your neighbor. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  78. This question should be applied to all desires; what will happen to me if the object of my desire is achieved and what if it is not? (tr. Long & Sedley)
  79. The occurrence of certain bodily pains is a help to protecting oneself against similar ones. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  80. In a philosophical discussion he who is worsted gains more in proportion as he learns more. (Bailey)
  81. Ungrateful towards the blessings of the past is the saying, 'Wait till the end of a long life.' (Bailey)
  82. The greatest fruit of self-sufficiency is freedom. (Bailey)
  83. The man of noble character is chiefly concerned with wisdom and friendship. Of these the former is a mortal good, but the latter is immortal. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  84. The undisturbed man causes no stress to himself or to anyone else. (tr. Long & Sedley)
  85. The first measure of security is to watch over one's youth and to guard against what makes havoc of all by means of pestering desires. (Bailey)
  86. What releases the soul's disturbance and produces worthwhile joy is neither possessing the greatest wealth, nor public recognition and respect, nor anything else which is dependent on indeterminate causes. (tr. Long & Sedley)

— Principal Doctrine 1

Epicurean Philosophy Map

Epicurean Philosophy

Physics ＋ Canonics ⟶ Ethics

Core Texts: Diogenes Laertius | Lucretius | Torquatus | Velleius | Topical Outline

⚛ Physics: The Nature of the Universe

⚛ Nothing Comes From Nothing or Goes To Nothing Supernaturally. Everything Happens Naturally From The Motion of Atoms Through Space. | Reference | Quotations | Discussion | Podcast |
⚛ The Universe Is Infinite In Size And Eternal In Time And Has No Gods Over It. There Is No Supernatural Design Or Existence Outside Of Nature. | Reference | Quotations | Discussion | Podcast |
⚛ True Divinity Is Incorruptible And Blessed. Beings Which Are Divine Do Not Reward Friends And Punish Enemies Or Intervene In Human Affairs. | Reference | Quotations | Discussion | Podcast |
⚛ Death Is Nothing To Us. When We Die We Cease To Exist. | Reference | Quotations | Discussion | Podcast |
⚛ There Is No Necessity To Live Under the Control of Necessity. There Is No Fate Or Destiny - We Decide How We Live. | Reference | Quotations | Discussion | Podcast |

📐 Canonics: How To Know What Is True

📐 He Who Says Nothing Can Be Known Knows Nothing. Knowledge Of Reality Is Possible. | Reference | Quotations | Discussion | Podcast |
📐 All Sensations Are True. Error Is In The Mind And Not The Senses. | Reference | Quotations | Discussion | Podcast |
📐 The Criteria of Truth Are The Sensations, Anticipations, and Feelings. These Natural Faculties Connect Us With Reality. | Reference | Quotations | Discussion | Podcast |
📐 Dialectical Logic And Radical Skepticism Do Not Determine Truth. Reasoning Must Be Grounded In The Perceptions Of Our Natural Faculties. | Reference | Quotations | Discussion | Podcast |
📐 Platonic Ideal Forms, Aristotelian Essences, And Divine Revelation Do Not Exist. All Truth Exists In This World. | Reference | Quotations | Discussion | Podcast |

🌿 Ethics: How To Live

🌿 Happiness Is the Goal of Life. A Life Of Happiness Is A Life In Which Pleasure Predominates Over Pain. | Reference | Quotations | Discussion | Podcast |
🌿 Pleasure Is the Guide, Beginning, And End Of The Happy Life. Pleasure Includes Not Just Bodily Stimulation But All Mental And Physical Experience We Find To Be Agreeable. | Reference | Quotations | Discussion | Podcast |
🌿 The Term "Pleasure" Is The Exact Equivalent Of "Absence of Pain." All Experiences Of Life Are Either Pleasurable Or Painful, With No Middle Ground, So The Presence Of One Means The Absence Of The Other. | Reference | Quotations | Discussion | Podcast |
🌿 Virtue Is Not Absolute Or An End In Itself. There Is Nothing Good But Pleasure And Nothing Evil But Pain. | Reference | Quotations | Discussion | Podcast |
🌿 Life Is Desirable, But Unlimited Time Contains No Greater Pleasure Than Limited Time. A Life Full Of Pleasure Can Never Be More Than Full No Matter How Much Time Is Available. | Reference | Quotations | Discussion | Podcast |

Articles On Epicurean Philosophy

Latest Epicurus and the Pleasure of Rebelling Against Plato By Cassius · August 28, 2026 Epicurean philosophy was built from the ground up as a deliberate, systematic rebellion against Plato across physics, canonics, and ethics alike, and participation in this revolt is itself a pleasure, because pleasure includes all that matters to us in life - and what matters the most produces great pleasure. The Full Cup Model: Pleasure, Purity, and the Limit That Answers Plato By Cassius · July 10, 2026 This article challenges the modern misreading of Epicurean philosophy as advocating for minimal pleasure and passive tranquility -- Epicurus's actual doctrine represents a life filled with vivid, varied sensory experiences, constrained only by the removal of pain. On Pain, Pleasure, And Happiness By Elayne · July 15, 2019 Argues that pleasure and pain are the only two feelings humans experience, with no neutral state, and that happiness consists of maximizing pleasure while minimizing pain throughout one's entire life. Against Katastematic Supremacy: Pleasure Is A Unified Good, Not A House Divided Against Itself By Cassius · July 16, 2026 Argues that pleasure is a single, unified good rather than split into rival "kinetic" and "katastematic" camps -- and that this distinction, imposed by later commentators like Cicero, is not what Epicurus actually taught. A Gate To Be Burst: "Absence of Pain" By Cassius · February 12, 2024 Examines why "absence of pain" is not a lesser, passive state but the very gate that must be broken through to reach the fullness of pleasure Epicurus actually described. Where Was The Garden of Epicurus In Athens? By Don Traces the ancient textual and archaeological evidence for the location of Epicurus's Garden in Athens, arguing it stood along one of the city's busiest roads -- not hidden away as often assumed. Bread and Water: Debunking the Idea of Epicurean Asceticism By Don Shows that Epicurus's "bread and water" was the ordinary, everyday diet of ancient Greeks -- not a punitive or ascetic deprivation, but nourishing barley bread and spring water. How Is The Wise Epicurean Always Happy By Cassius · April 21, 2026 Epicurus taught that happiness comes through pursuing pleasure understood as desirable experience, contrary to common misconceptions that he advocated hedonistic excess or ascetic denial. The Completeness Argument, Cicero's Knowledge Of It, And The Epicurean Response By Cassius · August 7, 2026 One of philosophy's oldest objections to identifying the highest good with anything other than virtue argues that the good must be complete -- whole, finished, lacking nothing -- and cannot be a process or anything admitting growth or degree. Epicurean Responses To The Intelligent Design Argument By Cassius · April 28, 2026 Traces the intelligent design argument from Pre-Socratic philosophy through modern creationism, and reconstructs the systematic Epicurean case against it on logical, physical, and ethical grounds. The Deep-Set Boundary Stone: Epicurus and the Perils of Applying the Principles of Geometry to Ethical Philosophy By Joshua Drawing on his own background as a land surveyor, examines why Epicurus rejected geometry's first principles and refused to let its abstractions dictate ethical conclusions. Giving Credit Where It Is Due: Samuel Dunster, Likely Author of the 1743 Prose Translation of Lucretius By Joshua · July 18, 2024 Through comparative analysis of prefaces and historical documentation, the author presents circumstantial evidence that Rev. Samuel Dunster, an 18th-century Anglican clergyman, authored an anonymous 1743 prose translation of Lucretius previously misattributed. Moderation in All Things Is Not Always the Prudent Course By Kalosyni Corrects the common misconception that Epicurus taught "moderation in all things" -- a phrase borrowed from Aristotle, not Epicurus -- arguing the real Epicurean guide is prudence, not moderation. The Continuing Vitality of Epicurean Physics By Cassius · April 20, 2026 Defends the core claims of Epicurean physics as logical guardrails rather than outdated science -- arguing that modern physics confirms rather than refutes them. Aulus Gellius And The Clearest Ancient Testimony That Absence of Pain Means Nothing More Than Pleasure By Cassius · July 20, 2026 Argues that Aulus Gellius, a neutral Roman grammarian, provides definitive evidence that Epicurus's definition of pleasure as "the removal of all pain" describes pleasure at its highest degree, not a separate tranquil state. The Epicurean Paradigm Shift - Things To Know When Reading Epicurus For The First Time By Cassius · May 25, 2025 Epicurus employed terminology that differed dramatically from conventional philosophical usage, requiring readers to adopt a new mental framework, particularly regarding pleasure, gods, and the nature of reality. "When the Gospel of Minimalism Collides With Daily Life" By Cassius · July 3, 2017 References a New York Times piece questioning whether minimalism truly delivers satisfaction -- some practitioners discovered that "a little more stuff actually brought them immense comfort" despite minimalist ideology. 25 Mind Viruses Cured By Epicurean Philosophy By Cassius · April 10, 2026 Argues that throughout history, false philosophical ideas have spread like viruses through populations, and Epicurean philosophy offers cures for 25 of the most persistent misconceptions about reality, happiness, and human nature. "Challenging Ataraxia" - By Haris Dimitriadis By Haris Dimitriadis · May 15, 2020 Argues that Epicurus used "maximum of pleasure" and ataraxia interchangeably in casual settings, but they represent distinct phenomena -- with ataraxia signaling pleasure's upper limit rather than serving as philosophy's ultimate goal. Not A Bunker But A Camp By Cassius · March 24, 2026 A response to Massimo Pigliucci's essay on Epicurus and political engagement, arguing that ataraxia was never the goal and that Epicureans have always engaged actively with society rather than withdrawing from it. The 'Academic Questions' Behind Evaluation Of Pleasure and Happiness By Cassius · August 1, 2026 Cicero's Academic Questions appears to be a dry debate about epistemology, but it actually concerns whether happiness is accessible to everyone or only to the philosophical elite. Fanaticism and the Danger of Dogmatism in Political and Religious Thought By Elli · June 19, 2025 Argues that fanaticism and dogmatism -- rooted in fear rather than knowledge -- fundamentally obstruct human flourishing, while Epicurean philosophy offers liberation through reason and freedom from fear. Clinamen Vitae By Elli · October 27, 2025 Contrasts dialectical thinking in economic theory with Epicurean philosophy's natural approach, arguing that prudence and friendship -- not logical opposition -- guide humans toward a genuinely pleasant life. Why It Is Incorrect to Say Epicurean Philosophy Is Primarily About 'Absence of Pain' By Cassius · May 19, 2026 Argues that reducing Epicurean philosophy to "absence of pain" fundamentally misrepresents its core teaching of active, positive pleasure as life's highest good. Duty, Evolution, Neuroscience, Attic Tragedy, and Epicurean Philosophy By Elli · November 18, 2025 Critiques Cicero's portrayal of Torquatus as an Epicurean defender, arguing that his defense of executing his own son fundamentally contradicts authentic Epicurean ethics centered on friendship and natural bonds. The Letter of Epicurus to His Mother By Elli · June 19, 2026 Epicurus consoles his anxious mother about her disturbing dreams by offering rational explanation rather than mythological interpretation, demonstrating how knowledge dissolves fear. "The Canon of Epicurus In Everyday Life" By George Kaplanis · November 22, 2018 Introduces Epicurus's Canon as a practical tool for daily life, arguing that it functions like a ruler or level -- something meant to be used rather than merely discussed -- to help navigate obstacles and distinguish reality from imagination. "The Epicurean Viewpoint", by George Kaplanis By George Kaplanis · November 22, 2018 Explores what constitutes the authentic Epicurean perspective by examining Epicurus's letter to Idomeneus, arguing that true Epicurean philosophy provides practical guidance for navigating life's obstacles rather than serving merely as abstract contemplation. We And The Stoics Today By Dimitris Liarmakopoulos · April 2, 2019 Argues that Stoicism, despite being a rival philosophical system, has fundamentally shaped modern Western thought and institutions through its emphasis on duty, providence, and acceptance of fate rather than genuine human freedom. Let All Who Would Free Themselves From the False Claims Of The Geometers Enter Here By Cassius · April 24, 2026 Epicurus systematically rejected Platonic mathematics as ontologically false, arguing that dimensionless geometric points contradict sensory evidence and represent a foundational philosophical error still urgent in modern theoretical physics. Living For The Pleasures Of The Moment Isn't Epicurean — It's Lunacy By Cassius · July 17, 2026 Argues that Epicurus explicitly rejected immediate gratification and "live for the moment" philosophy, instead teaching that pleasure must be pursued through rational consideration of consequences. The Epic of Epicurus - Ithaca and the Garden: Dialectic and the Canon By Elli · December 16, 2025 Contrasts Epicurus's empirical Canon with Odysseus's dialectical approach, arguing that Epicurus developed a superior epistemology based on sensory evidence rather than endless rhetorical debate.

Featured Lucretius Today Podcasts

Nothing Comes From Nothing Or Goes To Nothing Supernaturally By Cassius Epicurus deduced the existence of atoms from the observation that nothing arises from nothing and nothing is destroyed to nothing -- the starting point for rejecting all supernatural creation. 🎧 Listen: Episode 259 & Discussion →
The Universe Is Infinite In Size and Eternal In Time And Has No Gods Over It By Cassius Epicurus reasoned that the universe must be infinite in both atoms and space, eliminating any place "outside" or "over" it where supernatural forces could exist. 🎧 Listen: Episode 260 & Discussion →
True Divinity Is Incorruptible And Blessed By Cassius Reasoning from Nature's own patterns, Epicurus concluded the universe contains blessed, deathless beings worthy of the name "gods" -- beings we have nothing to fear from. 🎧 Listen: Episode 256 & Discussion →
Death Is Nothing To Us By Cassius Since consciousness cannot survive the body, death holds no punishment or reward to fear -- a realization that frees us to focus entirely on making the best use of the life we have. 🎧 Listen: Episode 261 & Discussion →
There Is No Necessity To Live Under the Control Of Necessity By Cassius Epicurus identified Determinism as a demoralizing and self-contradictory falsehood, pointing out that our power over the ultimate choice in life proves we are not slaves to necessity. 🎧 Listen: Episode 257 · Episode 258
He Who Says "Nothing Can Be Known" Knows Nothing By Cassius Radical Skepticism collapses under its own weight: anyone who claims 'nothing can be known' is claiming to know that very thing. 🎧 Listen: Episode 262 & Discussion →
All Sensations Are True By Cassius Our senses report honestly and without opinion; truth and error arise only in the mind's interpretation, never in the faculties Nature gave us to perceive the world. 🎧 Listen: Episode 263 & Discussion →
The Criteria Of Truth Are The Sensations, Anticipations, And Feelings By Cassius Epicurus identified three co-equal natural faculties -- sensation, anticipation, and feeling -- that together form the Canon, the measuring-rule against which every claim to truth must be tested. 🎧 Listen: Episode 160 (related) & Discussion →
Dialectical Logic And Radical Skepticism Do Not Determine Truth By Cassius Neither the Stoic and Peripatetic reliance on formal logic, nor the Academic Skeptic's distrust of the senses, keeps faith with the only genuine standard of truth: sensation, anticipation, and feeling. 🎧 Listen: Episode 159 (related) & Discussion →
Platonic Ideal Forms, Aristotelian Essences, And Divine Revelation Do Not Exist By Cassius Plato's realm of perfect Forms, Aristotle's fixed essences, and claims of divine revelation each relocate truth away from the senses -- and each, for that reason, cannot be known to exist at all. 🎧 Listen: Episode 122 (related) & Discussion →
Happiness Is The Goal Of Life By Cassius Happiness is the overall target across an entire life -- a life in which pleasure predominates over pain -- distinct from pleasure itself, which is the moment-to-moment guide used to reach it. 🎧 Listen: Episode 316 (related) & Discussion →
Pleasure Is The Guide Of Life By Cassius With no supernatural gods or absolute virtue to appeal to, Nature gives us only Pleasure and Pain by which to determine what to choose and what to avoid. 🎧 Listen: Episode 268 & Discussion →
By Pleasure We Mean All Experience That Is Not Painful (The Absence of Pain) By Cassius Since Nature gives us only two feelings, whatever is not painful is in fact pleasurable -- making "Absence of Pain" and "Pleasure" exactly the same thing, and a pleasant life available to nearly everyone. 🎧 Listen: Episode 269 & Discussion →
Virtue Is Not Absolute Or An End In Itself. All Good And Evil Consists In Sensation. By Cassius Virtue is not a divine or absolute ideal but a set of tools for living well -- and good and evil are not abstractions, but consist in sensation itself. 🎧 Listen: Episode 267 & Discussion →
Life Is Desirable, But Unlimited Time Contains No Greater Pleasure Than Limited Time By Cassius Since pleasure involves intensity and completeness as well as duration, an unlimited lifespan could add nothing to a life that is already, in the relevant sense, complete. 🎧 Listen: Episode 270 & Discussion →

Featured Videos

Latest Videos - Epicurean Friends
Welcome To Classical Epicurean Philosophy

An introduction to the core principles of Epicurean philosophy, exploring the ancient wisdom of Epicurus and its relevance to modern life.

In Defense of Epicurus

Cicero's "Torquatus" explains and defends Epicurean philosophy.

The True Nature of Divinity

Cicero's "Velleius" argues against supernatural gods and explains Epicurus' views of true divinity.

The Epicurean Paradigm Shift

Essential concepts to understand when reading Epicurus for the first time. Learn about the paradigm shift in thinking that Epicurean philosophy represents.

Interview: Dr. Emily Austin - "Living For Pleasure - An Epicurean Guide To Life"

Lucretius Today interviews Dr. Emily Austin to discuss her recent book, which is one of the best introductions to Epicurus available anywhere.

Interview: Dr. Marcelo Boeri - "Theory and Practice In Epicurean Political Philosophy"

Lucretius Today interviews Dr. Marcelo Boeri, co-author of a book on practical applications of Epicurean political theory.

Interview: Dr. David Glidden - "Epicurean Prolepsis"

Lucretius Today interviews Dr. David Glidden author of the article "Epicurean Prolepsis."

An Elementary Fact Worth Remembering

Examines a passage in Epicurus's Letter to Herodotus on the motion of images and atoms, where translators and commentators disagree about what "elementary fact" Epicurus was actually pointing to.

Things To Do To Get Started At EpicureanFriends

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A Final Word

Never allow yourself to get so "deep in the weeds" that you lose sight of the fundamental Epicurean truths: that there are no supernatural gods, and that there is no life after death. Many of the doctrines and sayings of Epicurus are very deep, and the fragmentary nature of some of the texts sometimes leaves us uncertain of the details Epicurus taught. Whenever you find yourself frustrated that you don't know everything Epicurus had to say, recall his advice to Herodotus:

"For we have frequent need of the general view, but not so often of the detailed exposition. Indeed it is necessary to go back on the main principles, and constantly to fix in one's memory enough to give one the most essential comprehension of the truth."

You don't always need the details — you need an understanding of the big picture, and you can always return to it through our Classical Epicurean Philosophy and Foundations of Epicurean Philosophy pages.

Trace The Major Concepts To The Key Documents

Physics -- The Nature of the Universe
Canonics -- The Science of Knowledge
  • Epicurus' standard of truth was "The Canon that fell from heaven" — our one fixed standard of judgment — Torquatus Book I §63
  • We must first fix clearly what each word means before we can discuss that which cannot be seen — Herodotus §37-38
  • The senses are the foundation of all knowledge — reasoning itself depends on them, and it is nonsense to claim nothing can be known — Lucretius IV.469, Lucretius IV.478, Lucretius IV.500
  • Perception happens through movement of atoms (images) that strike the senses and mind directly — Herodotus §46-50, Lucretius IV.722
  • The senses themselves never lie; illusions have natural physical explanations, and false judgments come from opinion added by the mind, not from the senses — Lucretius IV.353, Lucretius IV.462
  • There are two kinds of claims: what's logically certain, and what's merely provisional — Pythocles §86-87
  • Where more than one natural explanation fits the evidence equally well, all such explanations should be accepted as possible — Herodotus §79-80, Pythocles §95-96
  • The preconception argument for our knowledge of gods: prolepsis provides an innate, untaught predisposition that gods exist — Velleius §XVII
Ethics -- Nature's Path To The Best Life

Life At EpicureanFriends.com - Rules Of The Forum

Not Neo-Epicurean, But Epicurean
  1. Not "flourishing," "human potential," "self-actualization," or "meaningfulness," but happiness grounded in the feeling of pleasure.
  2. Not "absence of pain" as a full statement of the goal of life, but "the Feelings are two, pleasure and pain" and "Pleasure is the beginning and the end of a happy life."
  3. Not virtue for the sake of virtue, but virtue as instrumental for the attainment of pleasure.
  4. Not "the greatest good for the greatest number," but "Every desire must be confronted with this question: What will happen to me if the object of my desire is accomplished and what if it is not?"
  5. Not "humanism," "transhumanism," "individualism," "collectivism," "egoism," "altruism," "social progress," "Marxism," "democracy," "tyranny," or any "one size fits all" political ideal of any kind, but social structure based on friendship which "is formed and maintained by means of a community of life among those who have reached the fullness of pleasure."
  6. Not "hard determinism," but "some things happen from necessity, some from chance, and others through our own choice."
  7. Not "supernaturalism," but "materialism."
  8. Not "supernatural gods," or "life after death," but confidence in a fully material universe and "for those men for whom wisdom is possible, such men may truly live as gods."
  9. Not only "short term hedonism," but "it is to continuous pleasures that I invite you."
  10. Not "rationalism," but "all reason is dependent upon sensations."
  11. Not fearful of death nor careless of losing life, but valuing life for the opportunity of pleasure it brings.
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