1. Life - Life Is Desirable, But Unlimited Time Contains No Greater Pleasure Than Limited Time
It should come as no surprise that Epicurus held life to be desirable: without life, the experience of pleasure -- the goal of living -- is impossible. Life is the necessary precondition for the pursuit and achievement of happiness, and is therefore something to be valued. However, Epicurus drew an important and practically liberating conclusion from the logic of pleasure itself: unlimited time does not add to the fullness of a happy life. A life that has achieved the full positive pleasure of freedom from pain and disturbance is as full as it can be -- it cannot be made "more full" simply by adding more time. As the Letter to Menoeceus states, the wise person can harvest a life of complete happiness in a limited span of time, just as one who has eaten their fill is not better nourished by more time at the table.
This conclusion works in two practical directions. On one side, it removes any rational basis for clinging desperately to life out of fear that death cuts short something that was not yet complete -- a well-lived life of whatever duration has already achieved its goal, and more time would simply be more of the same rather than more fulfillment. On the other side, it removes any basis for choosing to prolong one's life in circumstances where continuing to live would involve more pain than pleasure. Neither clinging to life nor shrinking from death serves the goal of happiness. What serves that goal is living fully and well while one is alive, with the understanding that the value of a life is measured by its quality rather than its quantity.
[A hostile Skeptic defends Epicurus against the charge that he borrowed his doctrines from the poets. Sextus confirms that Epicurus did not teach indifference to life: life is "far preferable" because only the living can feel the good.]
And Epicurus did not take his definition of the intensity of pleasures from the Homeric poems. For there is a vast difference between saying that certain persons ceased from drinking and eating and satisfying their appetite (for that is the meaning of "When they had now put aside all longing for drinking and eating") and saying that the definition of the intensities of pleasures is "the removal of the painful"; for this is the natural effect not of meats and wine only but also of the simplest foods. Moreover, the poet made his statement about viands only, but Epicurus about all enjoyable things, amongst which is sexual intercourse, and all know what opinion Homer held about it. That "death is nothing to us" was said, no doubt, by Sophron, but was proved by Epicurus, and it is not the saying but the proving that is admirable. Moreover, Epicurus did not assert that "death is nothing to us" in the sense that to be alive or not is a matter of indifference; for it is far preferable to be alive because the good belongs to the sentient; his meaning was that where sense is absent there is nothing evil or good. (Bury)
Did our life lie in darkness and misery until the world's beginning dawned? Although anyone who has been born must wish to remain in life so long as the caresses of pleasure hold him there, if someone has really never tasted the passion for life and has never been an individual, what harm does it do him not to have been created? (tr. Long & Sedley)
[Above: Long & Sedley excerpt. Below: the same passage in Bailey's translation.]
The pleasure in the flesh is not increased when once the pain due to want is removed, but is only varied: and the limit as regards pleasure in the mind is begotten by the reasoned understanding of these very pleasures, and of the emotions akin to them, which used to cause the greatest fear to the mind. (tr. Long & Sedley)
PD19. Infinite time contains no greater pleasure than limited time, if one measures, by reason, the limits of pleasure. (tr. Long & Sedley)
The flesh perceives the limits of pleasure as unlimited, and unlimited time is required to supply it. But the mind, having attained a reasoned understanding of the ultimate good of the flesh and its limits, and having dissipated the fears concerning the time to come, supplies us with the complete life, and we have no further need of infinite time; but neither does the mind shun pleasure, nor, when circumstances begin to bring about the departure from life, does it approach its end as though it fell short, in any way, of the best life. (tr. Long & Sedley)
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)
[Corrected from "126" to "122" -- this is the letter's opening sentence, verified against the rendered page; it does not match any content at sec. 126.]
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. (Bailey)
Suppose that now the nature of things should of a sudden lift up her voice, and thus in these words herself rebuke some one of us: 'Why is death so great a thing to thee, mortal, that thou dost give way overmuch to sickly lamentation? Why groan and weep at death? For if the life that is past and gone has been pleasant to thee, nor have all its blessings, as though heaped in a vessel full of holes, run through and perished unenjoyed, why dost thou not retire like a guest sated with the banquet of life, and with calm mind embrace, thou fool, a rest that knows no care?' (Bailey)
Why not retire like a banqueter who has had his fill of life, and with calm mind embrace a rest that knows no care? But if your present pleasures have been squandered and life has become hateful, and all the things you want to enjoy are already gone, why look for something to add which would also come to an end amiss? Is it not better to bring life to an end and make an end of trouble? There is nothing more that I can devise or discover to please you; all things are the same forever. (Bailey, adapted)
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)
He is a little man in all respects who has many good reasons for quitting life. (Bailey)
I have anticipated thee, Fortune, and entrenched myself against all thy secret attacks. And we will not give ourselves up as captives to thee or to any other circumstance; but when it is time for us to go, spitting contempt on life and on those who here vainly cling to it, we will leave life crying aloud in a glorious triumph-song that we have lived well. (Bailey)
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)
Ungrateful towards the blessings of the past is the saying, 'Wait till the end of a long life.' (Bailey)
[Time], even if it were productive of pleasure eternally, would not increase pleasure eternally. (Smith)