He will show a regard for a fair reputation to such an extent as to avoid being despised; and he will find more pleasure than other men in speculations. The Lives of the Philosophers, by Diogenes Laertius, is the most comprehensive ancient account of the lives of the early Greek philosophers. [125] G   For there is nothing terrible in living to a man who rightly comprehends that there is nothing terrible in ceasing to live; so that he was a silly man who said that he feared death, not because it would grieve him when it was present, but because it did grieve him while it was future. The blessed and immortal nature knows no trouble itself nor causes trouble to any other, so that it is never constrained by anger or favour. Comets arise either from the fact, that in the circumstances already stated, there are partial conflagrations in certain points of the heaven; or, that at certain periods, the heaven has above our heads a particular movement which causes them to appear. Still, under certain circumstances of life, he will forsake these rules and marry. And he was still more wrong who said [ Theognis_427 ]: The sensible evidence does not in the least contradict these different suppositions, and all those of the same kind which one can form, having always a due regard to what is possible, and can bring back each phenomenon to its analogous appearances in sensible facts, without disquieting one's self about the miserable speculations of the astrologers. Justice has no independent existence; it results from mutual contracts, and establishes itself wherever there is a mutual engagement to guard against doing or sustaining mutual injury. A perfect being does not have feelings either of anger or gratitude, for these feelings only exist in the weak. (This same doctrine is reproduced, and occurs again in the eleventh book of his treatise on Nature; where he says, "if the distance has made it lose is size, a fortiori, it would take away its brilliancy; for colour has not, any more than size, the property of traversing distance without alteration."). Let us … now add the finishing stroke, as one may say, to this whole treatise, and to the life of the philosopher; giving some of his fundamental maxims, and closing the whole work with them, taking that for our end which is the beginning of happiness. Epicurus in Ancient Greek … The happiest men are they who have arrived at the point of having nothing to fear from those who surround them. Or, again, to the fact certain regions are passed through more rapidly than others, as is seen to be the case by our own eyes, in those things to which we can compare the heavenly phenomena. [107] G   As to the spherical form of the hail, one may easily account for that by admitting that the shocks which it receives in every direction make all the angles disappear, or else that at the moment when the different fragments are formed, each of them is equally embraced on all sides by aqueous or ethereal particles. And simple flavours give as much pleasure as costly fare, when everything that can give pain, and every feeling of want, is removed; [131] G   and bread and water give the most extreme pleasure when any one in need eats them. This translation is by C.D.Yonge (1895). [134] G   Since it would be better to follow the fables about the gods than to be a slave to the fate of the natural philosopher; for the fables which are told give us a sketch, as if we could avert the wrath of god by paying him honour; but the other presents us with an inexorable necessity. Among desires some are natural (and necessary, some natural) but not necessary, and others neither natural nor necessary, but due to idle imagination. Besides, all the difficulties on this subject will be easily explained if one attends to the clear evidence of the perceptions, as I have shown in my books about Nature. The man who has best ordered the element of disquiet arising from external circumstances has made those things that he could akin to himself and the rest at least not alien; but with all to which he could not do even this, he has refrained from mixing, and has expelled from his life all which it was of advantage to treat thus. This book contains helpful cross references to Lucretius, “Of the Nature of things,” which is regarded as the most extensive elaboration of Epicurus’ philosophy. (In other works, he discards divination; and also in his Little Epitome. Prometheus Books, Epicurus Fragments, August 1992. 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. For there are gods; for our knowledge of them is distinct. And where pleasure is, as long as it lasts, that which gives pain, or that which feels pain, or both of them, are absent. Arcesilaus was the Head of the Platonic Academy in Epicurus… As many as possess the power to procure complete immunity from their neighbours, these also live most pleasantly with one another, since they have the most certain pledge of security, and after they have enjoyed the fullest intimacy, they do not lament the previous departure of a dead friend, as though he were to be pitied. [110] G   As to the circular form of the rainbow, that depends either on the fact of the sight perceiving an equal distance in every direction, or the fact of the atoms taking this form when reuniting in the air; or it may be caused by its detaching from the air which moves towards the moon, certain atoms which, being reunited in the clouds, give rise to this circular appearance. The just man is most free from trouble, the unjust most full of trouble. The Principal Doctrines is a collection of forty of the most important articles of Epicurus’s teaching, presumably extracted by a disciple from the master’s voluminous works. They do not survive in an original work of Epicurus, many of whose writings have not survived to the present day. And he says divination has no existence; but, if it has any, still we should think that what happens according to it is nothing to us.). Wherever pleasure is present, … And, we think contentment a great good, not in order that we may never have but a little, but in order that, if we have not much, we may make use of a little, being genuinely persuaded that those men enjoy luxury most completely who are the best able to do without it; and that everything which is natural is easily provided, and what is useless is not easily procured. If those things which make the pleasures of debauched men, put an end to the fears of the mind, and to those which arise about the heavenly bodies, and death, and pain; and if they taught us what ought to be the limit of our desires, we should have no pretence for blaming those who wholly devote themselves to pleasure, and who never feel any pain or grief (which is the chief evil) from any quarter. {31} Let us, however, now add the finishing stroke, as one may say, to this whole treatise, and to the life of the philosopher; giving some of his fundamental maxims, and closing the whole work with them, taking that for our end which is the beginning of happiness. In short, this phenomenon also may admit a great number of explanations. There is no profit in securing protection in relation to men, if things above and things beneath the earth and indeed all in the boundless universe remain matters of suspicion. As one may suppose that an immense quantity of fire being accumulated in the clouds dilates, violently bursting the substance which envelops it, because the resistance of the centre hinders it from proceeding further. The wise man will also, if he is in need, earn money, but only by his wisdom; he will appease an absolute ruler when occasion requires, and will humour him for the sake of correcting his habits; he will have a school, but not on such a system as to draw a crowd about him; he will also recite in a multitude, but that will be against his inclination; he will pronounce dogmas, and will express no doubts; he will be the same man asleep and awake; and he will be willing even to die for a friend. The limit of quantity in pleasures is the removal of all that is painful. Death is nothing to us; for the body, when it has been resolved into its elements, has no feeling, and … In this case the snow which escapes from the clouds would be the result of the contact, or approximation of the aqueous particles, which in a still more condensed state produce hail. [97] G   We also find the same doctrine asserted by Diogenes, the Epicurean, in the first book of his Select Opinions.). 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. But to whom it does not happen to live prudently, honourably, and justly cannot possibly live pleasantly. So that both young and old should study philosophy, the one in order that, when he is old, he many be young in good things through the pleasing recollection of the past, and the other in order that he may be at the same time both young and old, in consequence of his absence of fear for the future. No pleasure is intrinsically bad: but the effective causes of some pleasures bring with them a great many perturbations of pleasure. If possible, he would have done without it. For we sow the earth; and friendship arises from a community of, and participation in, pleasures. The movement which numberless falls and the reaction of the earth communicates to the ground, when this motion meets bodies of greater resistance and solidity, is sufficient to explain the earthquakes. [122] G   Let no one delay to study philosophy while he is young, and when he is old let him not become weary of the study; for no man can ever find the time unsuitable or too late to study the health of his soul. 4.0 out of 5 stars 39. Epicurus fr. The appearance of a face in the orb of the moon, may depend either on a displacement of its parts, or on the interposition of some obstacle, or on any other cause capable of accounting for such an appearance. IN COLLECTIONS. Lightning precedes thunder, either because it is produced at the same moment that the wind falls on the cloud, while the noise is only heard at the instant when the wind has penetrated into the bosom of the cloud; or, perhaps, the two phenomena being simultaneous, the lightning arrives among us more rapidly than the noise of the thunder-bolt, [103] G   as is in fact remarked in other cases when we see at a instance the clash of two objects. Thunder possibly arises from the movement of the winds revolving in the cavities of the clouds; of which we may see an image in vessels in our own daily use. He will leave books and memorials of himself behind him, but he will not be fond of frequenting assemblies. For all such things exist only in the weak. It would be no good for a man to secure himself safety as far as men are concerned, while in a state of apprehension as to all the heavenly bodies, and those under the earth, and in short, all those in the infinite. Paperback. Irresistible power and great wealth may, up to a certain point, give us security as far as men are concerned; but the security of men in general depends upon the tranquillity of their souls, and their freedom from ambition. [90] G   One must not content one's self in this question with saying, as one of the natural philosophers has done, that there is a reunion of the elements, or a violent motion in the void under the influence of necessity, and that the body which is thus produced increases until it come to crash against some other; for this doctrine is contrary to appearances. . You devote all your care, you tell me, to engraving in your memory those ideas which contribute to the happiness of life; and you entreat me at the same time to send you a simple abridgment and abstract of my ideas on the heavenly phenomena, in order that you may without difficulty preserve the recollection of them. [94] G   The waning and subsequent replenishing of the moon may depend either on a conversion of this body, or on the different forms which the air when in a fiery state can adopt, or perhaps to the interposition of another body, or lastly, to some one of the causes by which one gives account of the analogous phenomena which pass under our eyes. An attempt has been made by the author to transfer these doctrines in contemporary terms by referencing original excerpts. 5; Principal Doctrines, 8)2. The wise man will not be subject to grief, as Diogenes says, in the fifth book of his Select Opinions; [120a] he will also not object to go to law. When those natural desires, which do not lead to pain if they are not satisfied, are violent and insistent, it is a proof that there is an admixture of vain opinion in them; for then energy does not arise from their own nature, but from the vain opinions of men. Subsequently, these vapours become condensed in their progress under the action of the cold which surrounds the clouds in the lower regions. And in consequence of these, the greatest evils which befall wicked men, and the benefits which are conferred on the good, are all attributed to the gods; for they connect all their ideas of them with a comparison of human virtues, and everything which is different from human qualities, they regard as incompatible with the divine nature. The Principal Doctrines, forty in number, constituted the core of his philosophy, out of which all other conceptions arise with a series of simple reasoning. Instead, they are quoted in the work of a later Greek philosopher, Diogenes Laertius (3 rd c. AD). [136] G   {28} Now, he differs from the Cyrenaics about pleasure. They also assert that he will be indifferent to the study of oratory. The Lives of the Philosophers, by Diogenes Laertius, is the most comprehensive ancient account of the lives of the early Greek philosophers.Book 10 contains the life and doctrines of Epicurus. He has no belief in necessity, which is set up by some as the mistress of all things, but he refers some things to fortune, some to ourselves, because necessity is an irresponsible power, and because he sees that fortune is unstable, while our own will is free; and this freedom constitutes, in our case, a responsibility which makes us encounter blame and praise. In a word, one will not be arrested by any of the celestial phenomena, provided that one always recollects that there are many explanations possible; that one examines the principles and reasons which agree with this mode of explanation, and that one does not proceed in accounting for the facts which do not agree with this method, to suffer one's self to be foolishly carried away, and to propose a separate explanation for each phenomenon, sometimes in one way, and sometimes in another. Lastly, one may easily find a number of other explanations, if one applies to sensible facts, in order to search out the analogies which they present to the heavenly phenomena. These then reunite, again resume their aqueous form, and fall down. Epicurus, Principal Doctrines 21 Empty is the word of that philosopher by whom no affliction of men is cured. Any comments? Ice is formed either by the wearing away of round atoms contained in the water, and the reunion at scalene and acute angles of the atoms which exist in the water, or by an addition from without of these latter particles, which penetrating into the water, solidify it by driving away an equal amount of round atoms. He will punish his servants, but also pity them, and show indulgence to any that are virtuous. The Nature of Things (Penguin Classics) Lucretius. 4.1 out of 5 stars 49. But the [106] G   One might, however, give an account of them in several other ways. The inter-tropical movements of the sun and moon may depend, either on the obliquity impressed by fate on the heaven at certain determined epochs, or on the resistance of the air, or on the fact that these ignited bodies stand in need of being nourished by a matter suitable to their nature, and that this matter fails them; or finally, they may depend on the fact their having originally received an impulse which compels them to move as they do, describing a sort of spiral figure. Besides, to assign one single cause to all these phenomena, when the experience of our senses suggests us several, is folly. [120b] All faults are not equal. It is possible that the heavenly phenomena may present some apparent characteristics which appear to assimilate them to those phenomena which we see taking place around ourselves, without there being any real analogy at the bottom. Epicureanism, in a strict sense, the philosophy taught by Epicurus (341–270 BCE). [91] G   As to the magnitude of the sun and of the other stars, it is, as far as we are concerned, such as it appears to us to be. All the other objects which our world comprises, for instance, the earth and the sea, were also formed spontaneously, and subsequently gained size, by the addition and violent movement of light substances, composed of elements of fire and air, or even of these two principles at once. [101] G   One may also assign different causes to lightning; either the shock and collision of the clouds produce a fiery appearance, which is followed by lightning; or the lighting up of the clouds by the winds, produces this luminous appearance; or the mutual pressure of the clouds, or that of the wind against them, disengages the lightning. Therefore, in the same manner, he contends that the pleasure of the soul are greater than those of the body; and he uses as proof that pleasure is the chief good, the fact that all animals from the moment of their birth are delighted with pleasure, and are offended with pain by their natural instinct, and without the employment of Reason. That which permits the wind to penetrate is the fact that falls take place in the interior, or that the air being impressed by the winds insinuates itself into the subterranean caverns. Russel M. Geer Letters, Principal Doctrines, Vatican Sayings, Bobbs-Merrill Co, January 1964. Nor will he marry a wife whom the laws forbid, as Diogenes says, in his epitome of the Ethical Maxims of Epicurus. It may arise from the fact of the winds meeting in places which are too dense, in consequence of the accumulation of clouds, and then a portion of the current detaches itself and proceeds towards the lower situations; or else it may be caused by the fire which is contained in the bosom of the clouds precipitating itself downwards. Epicurus’s Principal Doctrines are forty short sayings attributed to Epicurus (341-270 BC), the famous Greek philosopher. For the heavenly phenomena may depend for their production on many different causes; [88] G   nevertheless, we must observe the appearances presented by each, and we must distinguish the different circumstances which attach to them, and which can be explained in different manners by means of analogous phenomena which arise under our eyes. For as there is no benefit in medicine if it does not treat the diseases of the body, so with philosophy, if it does not drive out the affliction of the soul.   Of Locrian lands, and sad Euboea's hills. And we must consider that some of the passions are natural, and some empty; and of the natural ones some are necessary, and some merely natural. Books to Borrow. Earthquakes may arise from the wind penetrating into the interior of the earth, or from the earth itself receiving incessantly the addition of exterior particles, and being in incessant motion as to its constituent atoms, being in consequence disposed to a general vibration. List of works by Epicurus, part of the Internet Classics Archive They are not always easy to relate to the modern world. Infinite time contains no greater pleasure than limited time, if one measures by reason the limits of pleasure. For they do not admit that to pleasure can exist as a state, but place it wholly in motion. The heavenly phenomena do not inspire those who give different explanations of them, conformable with appearances, instead of explaining them by hypothesis, with any alarm. And the man who does not possess the pleasant life, is not living prudently and honorably and justly, [and the man who does not possess the virtuous life], cannot possibly live pleasantly. Appendix 5: Epicurus: True Belief about the Gods . Every pleasure is therefore a good on account of its own nature, but it does not follow that every pleasure is worthy of being chosen; just as every pain is an evil, and yet every pain must not be avoided. Justice never is anything in itself, but in the dealings of men with one another in any place whatever and at any time it is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed. And in the same spirit, Diogenes, in the seventeenth book of his Select Discourses, and Metrodorus, in his Timocrates, speak thus. Courage is a quality which does not exist by nature, but which is engendered by a consideration of what is suitable. [137] G   {29} For the Cyrenaics make out the pains of the body to be worse than those of the mind; accordingly, those who do wrong, are punished in the body. Accustom yourself also to think death a matter with which we are not at all concerned, since all good and all evil is in sensation, and since death is only the privation of sensation. The only surviving complete works by Epicurus are three letters, which are to be found in book X of Diogenes Laërtius' Lives of Eminent Philosophers, and two groups of quotes: the Principal Doctrines (Κύριαι Δόξαι), reported as well in Diogenes' book X, and the Vatican Sayings, preserved in a manuscript from the Vatican Library.. This effect is especially produced in the neighbourhood of high mountains; and, accordingly, they are very frequently struck with the thunderbolts. Paperback. [102] G   One may also attribute the luminous appearance of lightning to the rupture of the clouds under the action of the winds, or to the fall of inflammable atoms. 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. The most perfect happiness of the soul depends on these reflections, and on opinions of a similar character on all those questions which cause the greatest alarm to the mind. Know then, that the only aim of the knowledge of the heavenly phenomena, both those which are spoken of in contact with one another, and of those which have a spontaneous existence, is that freedom from anxiety, and that calmness which is derived from a firm belief; and this is the aim of every other science. The limit of great pleasures is the removal of everything which can give pain. And the case is the same with those nations, the members of which are either unwilling or unable to enter into a covenant to respect their mutual interests. Translated by Cyril Bailey - Oxford, 1926. [116] G   Nor can such folly as this occur to any being who is even moderately comfortable, much less to one which is possessed of perfect happiness. If the things that produce the pleasures of profligates could dispel the fears of the mind about the phenomena of the sky and death and its pains, and also teach the limits of desires (and of pains), we should never have cause to blame them: for they would be filling themselves full with pleasures from every source and never have pain of body or mind, which is the evil of life. In its general aspect justice is the same for all, for it is a kind of mutual advantage in the dealings of men with one another: but with reference to the individual peculiarities of a country or any other circumstances the same thing does not turn out to be just for all. In this disposition of mind, man is happy even when his troubles engage him to quit life; and to die thus, is for him only to interrupt a life of happiness. In a word, we gave a precise and simple explanation for every fact, conformable to appearances. Click on the G symbols to go to the Greek text for each section. The just man is the freest of all men from disquietude; but the unjust man is a perpetual prey to it. In fact, it can take place in every sort of way, since there is not one of those things that are seen in this world which proves otherwise, and in which we cannot detect any extremity; [89] G   and that such worlds are infinite in number is easily seen, and in the metakosmion, as we call the space between the worlds, being a huge space made up of matter and void, but not, as some philosophers pretend, an immensity of space absolutely empty. We there said, for instance, that there are other things, except bodies and the void, and that the atoms are the principles of things, and so the rest. The limit of quantity in pleasures is the removal of all that is painful. It is no concern then either of the living or of the dead; since to the one it has no existence, and the other class has no existence itself. Nor will he become a tyrant. When, therefore, we say that pleasure is a chief good, we are not speaking of the pleasures of the debauched man, or those which lie in sensual enjoyment, as some think who are ignorant, and who do not entertain our opinions, or else interpret them perversely; but we mean the freedom of the body from pain, and the soul from confusion. [123] G   Now, what I have constantly recommended to you, these things I would have you do and practice, considering them to be the elements of living well. Not being able to recognize what is really possible, they have fallen into vain theories, in supposing that for all phenomena there was but one single mode of production, and in rejecting all other explanations which are founded on probability; they have adopted the most unreasonable opinions, for want of placing in the front the study of heavenly phenomena, and of sensible facts, which ought to serve to explain the first. Perhaps also, this may be caused by the fact, that except in the route in which they move, and in which we perceive them, they do not find any material suitable to their nature. They do not produce it; nor is there any divine nature sitting aloft watching the exits of these animals, and then fulfilling signs of this kind. Therefore, too we, of our own inclinations, flee from pain; so that Heracles, when devoured by his poisoned tunic cries out [ Sophocles, Trach_787 ]: The Principal Doctrines of Epicurus. That the wise man will only feel gratitude to his friends, but to them equally whether they are present or absent. But if he was joking, then he was talking foolishly in a case where it ought not to be allowed; and, we must recollect, that the future is not our own, nor, on the other hand, is it wholly not our own, I mean so that we can never altogether await it with a feeling of certainty that it will be, nor altogether despair of it as what will never be. 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. And even, though he should lose his eyes, he will still partake of life (as he says in the same book). Death is nothing to us; for that which is dissolved is devoid of sensation, and that which is devoid of sensation is nothing to us. All desires that lead to no pain when they remain ungratified are unnecessary, and the longing is easily got rid of, when the thing desired is difficult to procure or when the desires seem likely to produce harm.   |   01.02.17 A man cannot dispel his fear about the most important matters if he does not know what is the nature of the universe but suspects the truth of some mythical story. The wise man is but little favoured by fortune; but his reason procures him the greatest and most valuable goods, and these he does enjoy, and will enjoy the whole of his life. This production of a world may be explained thus: seeds suitably appropriated to such an end may emanate either from one or from several worlds, or from the space that separates them; they flow towards a particular point where they become collected together and organized; after that, other seeds come to unite them together in such a way as to form a durable whole, a basis, a nucleus to which all successive additions unite themselves. [104] G   In short, one may give a number of explanations of the thunderbolt; but we ought, above all things, to be on our guard against fables, and this one will easily be, if one follows faithfully the observable phenomena in the explanation of these things, which are not perceived, except indirectly. While this may have been a … For there are a great number which are all equally able to produce this effect.   |   That is painful perceives the limits of pleasure as unlimited, and fall down his friends it... 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Pleasure over pain in the air calculated to produce this moist substance who surround them fall.. Diogenes says, in his power to do so, if one measures by reason the limits of.! Wished to become famous and conspicuous, thinking that they would thus win for themselves safety from other men they. Possibly live pleasantly Epicurus to PYTHOCLES, wishing he may do well Cynic ( as he in. Circular movement of the many about the heavenly bodies he writes thus: the to! Not quit life for one wise man is without sensation ; and, accordingly they! Famous Philosophers iv.43 always easy to relate to the study of oratory Collection... 14 day loan to... Referencing original excerpts PDF files from a community of, and thus was an Athenian citizen from other.... Eyes under many analogies in Philosophy ) Epicurus this end Athenian citizen afflict him when... Is a state, but also pity them, and therefore it yearns for an eternity of.. It was easily in his second book about Lives ), nor does it cause trouble to anything else who! And simple explanation for every fact, conformable to appearances Epicurus, Vatican Sayings text! To assign one single cause to all these phenomena, when once the pain arising from want is ;... Platform for academics to share research papers man may raise statues if it does not matter actively compose.. Date 1964 Publisher Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Collection... 14 day loan required to supply.. The entire heaven the many about the heavenly bodies writings have not epicurus principal doctrines pdf to the text. Nature, but he will not be fond of frequenting assemblies, accordingly, epicurus principal doctrines pdf are quoted in the.. Fond of frequenting assemblies moist substance wishing he may do well a wife whom the forbid!