Epicurus, Original Stoic

If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
Epicurus (Quoted in A Cyclopedia of Education, 1911)

Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little
Epicurus

Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig. I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
Epicurus

There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men.
Epicurus (Quoted in Epicureanism, 1880)

You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.
Epicurus

It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.
Epicurus (Quoted in The Greek Atomists and Epicurus: A Study, 1964)

He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing.
Epicurus (Quoted in The Essential Epicurus, 1993)

Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.
Epicurus

Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.
Epicurus

Natural justice is a symbol or expression of usefulness, to prevent one person from harming or being harmed by another.
Epicurus (Principal Doctrines)

It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.
Epicurus

Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.
Epicurus (Quoted in Roman Philosophy and the Good Life, 2009)

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
Epicurus

All sensations are true; pleasure is our natural goal.
Epicurus

It is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a pallet, than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble.
Epicurus (Quoted in Great Traditions in Ethics, 2007)

The just man is most free from disturbance, while the unjust is full of the utmost disturbance.
Epicurus (Principal Doctrines)

The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.
Epicurus (Quoted in St. Paul and Epicurus, 1954)

Man loses all semblance of mortality by living in the midst of immortal blessings.
Epicurus (Letter to Menoeceus)

Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is friendship.
Variant: Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.
Epicurus (Principal Doctrines)

Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul.
Epicurus (Letter to Menoeceus)

Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempest.
Epicurus

A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs.
Epicurus (Quoted in The Philosophy of Epicurus, 1963)

Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth.
Epicurus (Quoted in The Essential Epicurus, 1993)

The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.
Epicurus

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 (Principal Doctrines)

The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.
Epicurus (Quoted in Epicurus’s Morals, 1712)

If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.
Epicurus

Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession as they torment us with their loss.
Epicurus