EPICURUS

341 270 BCE

THE GARDEN

Epicurus taught in the garden to his home.

Thus, his school was known as The Garden.
Epicurus admitted women as students.
Epicurus also admitted slaves as students.
Epicurus was accused of sexual misconduct
with his students, but he denied such claims
as did his students. Diogenes Laertius writes,
But these critics are all crazy. The man
Epicurus has plenty of witnesses to his
unparalleled benevolence toward all.

FROM EPICURUS.INFO

Theodorus says in the fourth book Against

Epicurus, that:
in

another letter to Themista he had determined to

make his way with her.
he also wrote to many other courtesans, especially to
Leontium, with whom Metrodorus also was in love.
in his book On the End-Goal, he writes, I do not
know how to conceive the good, apart form the
pleasures of taste, the pleasures of sex, the pleasures
of sound and the pleasures of contemplating beauty.
and that in his letter to Pythocles, he writes, Hoist
all sail, my dear boy, and steer clear of all culture.

FROM EPICURUS.INFO

Even Timocrates, the brother of Metrodorus, who was his

disciple until he left the school, asserts in his book
entitled Merriment, that:
Epicurus

vomited twice a day from overindulgence

he himself had great difficulty escaping this secret society with
its night-long sessions.
Epicurus was rather ignorant of philosophy, and his ignorance of
real life was even greater.
his bodily health was pitiful, and for that many years he was
unable to rise from his chair.
he spent a whole mina daily on his table, and that he himself
says so in his letter to Leontium and in the one to the
philosophers of Mitylene.
among other courtesans who consorted with him and Metrodorus
were Mammarion, Hedia, Erotion, and Nikidion {Mama,
Lusty, Erotique, and Victory.}

LETTER TO MENOECEUS

Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is

nothing to us, seeing that, when we are,
death is not come, and, when death is come,
we are not.

LETTER TO MENOECEUS

Pleasure is our first and kindred good. It is

the starting-point of every choice and of
every aversion, and to it we come back,
inasmuch as we make feeling the rule by
which to judge of every good thing.

LETTER TO MENOECEUS

When we say, then, that pleasure is the end and aim,

we do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the
pleasures of sensuality, as we are understood to do
by some through ignorance, prejudice, or willful
misrepresentation. By pleasure we mean the absence
of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul. It is
not an unbroken succession of drinking-bouts and of
merrymaking, not sexual love, not the enjoyment of
the fish and other delicacies of a luxurious table,
which produce a pleasant life; it is sober reasoning,
searching out the grounds of every choice and
avoidance, and banishing those beliefs through which
the greatest disturbances take possession of the soul.

DONT FEAR THE GODS

A blessed and imperishable being neither

has trouble itself nor does it cause trouble
for anyone else; therefore, it does not
experience feelings of anger or
indebtedness, for such feelings signify
weakness.

TYPES OF PLEASURES

No pleasure is a bad thing in itself, but

some pleasures are only obtainable at the
cost of excessive troubles.
Of all things that wisdom provides for living
ones entire life in happiness, the greatest by
far is the possession of friendship.

NATURAL JUSTICE

For all living creatures incapable of making

agreements not to harm one another, nothing is
ever just or unjust; and so it is likewise for all
tribes of men which have been unable or
unwilling to make such agreements.
He who desires to live in tranquility with nothing
to fear from other men ought to make friends.
Those of whom he cannot make friends, he should
at least avoid rendering enemies; and if that is
not in his power, he should, as much as possible,
avoid all dealings with them, and keep them
aloof, insofar as it is in his interest to do so.