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Atheism
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Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
-Epicurus
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Death
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It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls.
-Epicurus
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Death, the most dreaded of all evils, is therefore of no concern to us; for while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist.
-Epicurus, letter
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The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.
-Epicurus
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Fortune
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Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.
-Epicurus
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Friends
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Of all things which wisdom provides to make life entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.
-Epicurus
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We do not so much need the help of our friends as the confidence of their help in need.
-Epicurus
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Glory
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The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.
-Epicurus
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Gratitude
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Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
-Epicurus
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Happiness
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If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
-Epicurus
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It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly. And it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life.
-Epicurus
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Justice
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There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men
-Epicurus
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Learning
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I never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.
-Epicurus
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Life
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A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs...
-Epicurus
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Masses
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The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.
-Epicurus
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Pleasure
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All sensations are true; pleasure is our natural goal.
-Epicurus
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Recognition
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I have never wished to cater to the crowd; for what I know they do not approve, and what they approve I do not know.
-Epicurus
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Talent
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Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempest.
-Epicurus
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Wealth
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Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.
-Epicurus
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Books by and about Epicurus