Letter to Menoeceus

The following translation of Epicurus Letter to Menoeceus is based on a Greek tex

t on the Perseus website. Headings in bold are not part of the original text. Nu
mbers in square brackets refer to section divisions in the text of Diogenes Laer
tius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, in which the letter is preserved. The Greek
text needs to be reviewed and the translation compared with other translations.
Salutation: Epicurus to Menoeceus, greetings.
Introduction. (a) Philosophy: [122] Let no one who is young put off engaging i
n philosophy, nor anyone who is old weary of it. For no one is either too young
or too old to attend to the health of the soul.1 To say either that it is not ye
t the time to engage in philosophy or that the time has passed is like saying th
at it is either not the time or no longer the time for happiness. Thus young and
old ought to philosophize, so that the person who is ageing may be young again
through the benefits of gratitude for what is past, and the person who is young
may be old in not being afraid of the future. (b) Happiness: So we must study
and practise the things that produce happiness, for if we have happiness we have
everything, and if we lack happiness we do everything to have it.
1 The gods. (a) General exhortation: [123] Practise and study the things that
I have continually encouraged you to do, accepting these things as the essentia
l principles for a good life. (b) The nature of the gods: First, consider god
to be an immortal and blissful being, as the common idea of god indicates, but d
o not attach to god anything that is foreign to immortality or does not belong w
ith blissfulness. Believe about god everything that makes it possible to maintai
n divine blissfulness along with immortality. (c) The majority view: For gods
exist and we have clear knowledge of them, but the sorts of gods that most peopl
e deem them to be do not exist. For most people do not maintain what they really
know of the gods. The irreverent person is not the one who rejects the gods pro
moted by the majority but the one who attaches to the gods the views of the majo
rity. [124] For what the majority assert about the gods are not basic conception
s but false conceptions. And from these there come from the gods the greatest ha
rms for wicked people and the greatest benefits for the good. For the gods, alwa
ys having affinity with their own high standards, approve of those who are like
them but consider everything unlike them to be foreign.
2 Death. (a) Death is nothing to us: Accustom yourself to the thought that de
ath is nothing to us, since all good and evil are matters of sensation, and deat
h is the removal of sensation. For this reason, a correct understanding that dea
th is nothing to us makes the mortality of life agreeable, not by adding unlimit
ed time but by taking away the desire for immortality. [125] For there is nothin
g terrible in the fact of living, for someone who has truly grasped the fact tha
t there is nothing terrible in not living. Hence it is nonsense for a person to
speak of being afraid of death not because it will be grievous when it is presen
t but because it is grievous in prospect. For what does not trouble us when it i
s present grieves us pointlessly in anticipation. Thus death, the most horrible
of evils, is nothing to us, because while we exist it is not present and when it
is present we do not then exist. It is nothing, then, to the living or the dead
, as indeed it does not exist for the former and the latter no longer exist. (b
) Choosing between death and a good life: However, the majority at times flee f
rom death as the greatest of evils and at times <choose it> as a release from th
e <evils> of life. [126] <But a wise person neither declines life>2 nor fears no
t living, for from a wise person s perspective neither is life disagreeable nor is
not living considered an evil. And just as a wise person does not simply choose
the largest amount of food but the most pleasing food, so a wise person finds e
njoyment not in the longest amount of time but in the most pleasing time. It is
foolish for a person to encourage the young to live a good life and the old to b
ring their life to a good end, not only because life is to be welcomed but becau
se the same method applies for living well and dying well. Much worse is a perso

n who says that it is good not to be born, but having been born to pass through t
he gates of Hades as quickly as possible. 2 [127] If the person who says this is c
onvinced of it, why does he not depart from life? For he has it in his power, if
he were firmly resolved to do it. If he is joking, he makes a fool of himself a
mong those who disagree with him. We must remember that what is going to happen
is neither ours nor simply not ours, so that we do not simply wait for something
to happen nor give up hope that something will simply not happen.
3. Desires. (a) Types of desires: We must take into account that of desires s
ome are natural and some empty, and of the natural ones some are necessary and s
ome merely natural. Of the necessary desires, some are necessary for happiness,
some for freedom from bodily disturbance, and some for life itself. (b) Pleasur
e and happiness: [128] By giving unwavering attention to these distinctions we
can refer every instance of choice or avoidance to bodily health and tranquillit
y of soul, as this is the goal of living a happy life; and for the sake of this
we do everything to escape being in pain or alarm, and as soon as we achieve thi
s all trouble of soul ceases, since the living organism does not then need to go
on about a lack or search for something else by which the good of soul and body
can be completed. For we need pleasure when we are in pain through the absence
of pleasure. When we are no longer in pain we do not need pleasure. For this rea
son we say that pleasure is the beginning and goal of living happily. (c) Pleas
ure and decision-making: [129] For we know pleasure as our first and inborn goo
d, and we have it as the beginning of our every choice and avoidance, and we tur
n to it in using sensation as a standard for judging every good. And since pleas
ure is our first and natural good, for this reason we do not choose every pleasu
re, but there are times when we pass over many pleasures, when greater difficult
y would result from them for us, and we consider many pains to be better than pl
easures, whenever a greater and long-lasting pleasure will follow for us after w
e have suffered the pains. So every pleasure is a good through being naturally a
greeable, nevertheless not every pleasure is to be chosen; just as it is also th
e case that every pain is bad, but not every pain is always by its nature to be
avoided. [130] It is our duty, then, to judge all these things by comparison and
calculation and by consideration of advantages and disadvantages. For at certai
n times we treat what is good as bad, and conversely what is bad as good. (d) S
elf-sufficiency: And we regard self-sufficiency as a great good, not so that we
may absolutely make do with little, but so that if we do not have much we may b
e satisfied with little, being truly convinced that those experience the greates
t pleasure in the enjoyment of luxury who have least need of it, and that what i
s natural is all easily obtainable while what is empty is difficult to obtain. I
nexpensive dishes yield as much pleasure as expensive fare when the pain of need
is altogether removed; [131] and barley cake and water give the highest pleasur
e when someone in need consumes them. Hence growing accustomed to a simple and n
ot extravagant life-style is sufficient for full health, makes a person undaunte
d regarding the essential requirements of life, makes us better at dealing with
luxury when that comes along at intervals, and makes us fearless with regard to
chance. So when we speak of pleasure as being a goal, we are not speaking of the
pleasures of the dissolute or the pleasures of indulgence (as some people think
who reject our views out of ignorance or who misunderstand us), but of not havi
ng bodily pain or disturbance of soul. [132] For continual drinking and partying
, or taking one s enjoyment of boys and women, or indulging in fish and other deli
cacies of an expensive table, do not produce a pleasant life, but sober reasonin
g which both examines the basis for every choice and avoidance and drives out th
e opinions which cause very great turmoil to take hold of our souls. (e) Pleasu
re, wisdom, goodness, justice: Of all these things the beginning and the greate
st good is practical wisdom. Hence practical wisdom is more valuable than even p
hilosophy. From practical wisdom the other virtues spring. It teaches us that it
is not possible to live a pleasant life without living a wise, good and just li
fe, and it is not possible to live a wise, good and just life without living a p
leasant life. For the virtues grow along with a pleasant life, and a pleasant li
fe is inseparable from them.

4 The four-part cure and factors that shape the future. (a) The four-part cure
: [133] Now who do you think is in a stronger position than someone who holds d
utiful opinions concerning the gods and is altogether free from fear of death, a
nd has taken into account the goal of nature and has grasped that good has a lim
it which is easily attainable and procurable while what is bad has a limit in no
t lasting long or not being very painful, meanwhile laughing at <fate> (which is
advanced by some as the mistress of all)?5 (b) Necessity, chance, agency: Thi
s person (who accepts the four-part cure and laughs at fate) <affirms rather tha
t some things occur by necessity>,6 some by chance, and some by our own agency,
and sees that necessity is beyond anyone s control, chance is variable, and we are
autonomous and thereby subject to blame and the opposite. [134] It would be bet
ter to fall in with the myth about gods than to be slaves to the fate argued for
by (some) natural philosophers. For the former suggests a hope of intercession
through worship of gods, while the latter presents necessity as inexorable. And
this person does not accept that chance is either a god (as the majority think),
for nothing is done by a god in a disorganized way, or an unstable cause
reject
ing the view7 that it is from chance that good or evil is granted to human being
s for living a happy life, though chance supplies beginnings of great goods or e
vils. [135] And this person considers that it is better to act rationally and fa
il than to act irrationally and succeed; for it is better in human affairs to ha
ve a good decision <not succeed than to have a bad decision>8 succeed by chance.
Conclusion: Therefore study and practise these and related matters day and nigh
t, on your own and with someone similar to yourself, and whether awake or asleep
you will never be thrown into a state of disturbance and confusion, but you wil
l live like a divinity among humanity. For a person does not seem like a mortal
being at all when living in the midst of good things that are immortal.