The foolβs life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.
EpicurusRead
All friendship is desirable in itself, though it starts from the need of help
Interpretation
Friendship is valuable in its own right, even if it often begins from a need for support.
Epicurus suggests that while friendships may initially arise from a desire for assistance or companionship, their true value lies in the inherent qualities of the relationship itself. The essence of friendship transcends the initial motivations that bring people together, highlighting that the connection formed is worthwhile, independent of its origins in necessity.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of relationships, this quote highlights the intrinsic value of friendship.
The foolβs life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.
Accustom yourself to believe that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply awareness, and death is the privation of all awareness; therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality. For life has no terror; for those who thoroughly apprehend that there are no terrors for them in ceasing to live.
The wise man who has become accustomed to necessities knows better how to share with others than how to take from them, so great a treasure of self-sufficiency has he found.
We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.
I was not, I was, I am not, I care not. (Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo)
Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.
I want to be around people who dream and support and do things.
He who does not see the whole world in his friends, does not deserve that the world should hear of him.
My war buddies, some were Americans, but some were Afghans. These were the guys that I fought alongside. We bled alongside each other; we mourned together. When I came home, these weren't people I could keep up with on Facebook.
She laughed when there was no joke. She danced when there was no music. She had no friends, yet she was the friendliest person in school.
A friend, therefore, is a sort of paradox in nature. I who alone am, I who see nothing in nature whose existence I can affirm with equal evidence to my own, behold now the semblance of my being, in all its height, variety, and curiosity, reiterated in a foreign form; so that a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking.
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