The fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.
EpicurusRead
Neither one should hesitate about dedicating oneself to philosophy when young, nor should get tired of doing it when one's old, because no one is ever too young or too old to reach one's soul's healthy.
Interpretation
Philosophy is a lifelong pursuit that is relevant at any age.
Epicurus emphasizes that engaging with philosophy is a timeless endeavor that individuals should embrace regardless of their age. He suggests that both young and old can benefit from philosophical inquiry, as it fosters a deeper connection to one's inner self and promotes a more fulfilling life. The pursuit of wisdom and understanding is portrayed as essential for achieving a well-rounded and healthy soul.
In practice
In a lecture about personal growth and lifelong learning.
The fool’s 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.
Self-preservation, nature's first great law, all the creatures, except man, doth awe.
However, without considering this connection, there is no doubt but that more good than evil, more delight than sorrow, arises from compassion itself; there being so many things which balance the sorrow of it.
I can only become perfectly free by serving the will of God.
The fact that a cloud from a minor volcanic eruption in Iceland—a small disturbance in the complex mechanism of life on the Earth—can bring to a standstill the aerial traffic over an entire continent is a reminder of how, with all its power to transform nature, humankind remains just another species on the planet Earth.
We all dream; we do not understand our dreams, yet we act as if nothing strange goes on in our sleep minds, strange at least by comparison with the logical, purposeful doings of our minds when we are awake.
There is no language without deceit.
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