Epicurus / 2008-10-12 00:00:00

Epicurus
Principal Doctrines
Copyright 1995, James Fieser (jfieser@utm.edu). See end note
for details on copyright and editing conventions. Epicurus's
"Principal Doctrines" are preserved in Diogenes Laertius's
Lives of Eminent Philosophers. The following is from Robert
Drew Hicks's 1925 translation. This is a working draft;
please report errors.[1 ]
* * * *
1. A happy and eternal being has no trouble himself and
brings no trouble upon any other being; hence he is exempt
from movements of anger and partiality, for every such
movement implies weakness
2. Death is nothing to us; for the body, when it has
been resolved into its elements, has no feeling, and that
which has no feeling is nothing to us.
3. The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the
removal of all pain. When pleasure is present, so long as it
is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mind
or of both together.
4. Continuous pain does not last long in the body; on
the contrary, pain, if extreme, is present a short time, and
even that degree of pain which barely outweighs pleasure in
the body does not last for many days together.
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