Epicurus

Reading notes

• On Benefits §3.4.1 Epicurus

  The Athenian founder of the Epicurean school (341–270 BC); cited approvingly for holding that the surest pleasure is the recollection of past goods, which can no longer be lost.

• On Benefits §4.19.1 Epicurus

  Greek philosopher (341–270 BC); his gods dwell remote, untroubled, and indifferent to the world — the doctrine Seneca attacks here as making gratitude to them incoherent.

• On the Shortness of Life §14.2 Epicurus

  Founder of the Epicurean school, named for the philosophy of tranquil repose.

• On the Firmness of the Wise Man §15.4 Epicurus

  Founder of the Epicurean school (341–270 BC); though his rivals, Seneca cites his saying that fortune rarely crosses the wise man to shame the Stoics into claiming more.

• On Leisure §1.4 the precepts of Epicurus

  Epicurus (341–270 BC), founder of the rival school that made tranquil pleasure the highest good and counseled the wise man to keep out of politics; the objector accuses Seneca of importing Epicurean quietism into the Stoa.

• On the Happy Life §12.4 Epicurus

  The Athenian philosopher (341-270 BC) who taught that pleasure is the highest good; Seneca insists his actual doctrine was austere, and blames not Epicurus but those who shelter their vices under his name.

• Moral Letters to Lucilius §1.2.5 Epicurus

  Epicurus (341–270 BC), founder of the rival Epicurean school. Seneca quotes him approvingly throughout Book I, calling such borrowing the work of 'a scout, not a deserter'; here the maxim is on cheerful poverty.

• Moral Letters to Lucilius §4.30.14 Epicurus

  Athenian philosopher (341–270 BC), founder of the Epicurean school; Seneca, a Stoic, freely commends Epicurus's maxims on death and pain, here the doctrine that a great pain is short and that death is nothing to the one who has died.

• Moral Letters to Lucilius §4.33.2 Epicurus

  Athenian philosopher (341–270 BC), founder of the Epicurean school. Seneca, a Stoic, repeatedly quotes his maxims with approval; here he defends Epicurus against the charge of softness, insisting brave sayings abound in him.

• Moral Letters to Lucilius §7.66.18 Epicurus

  Epicurus (341--270 BC), founder of the rival Epicurean school. Seneca repeatedly enlists him as a witness against the Epicureans' own reputation for softness; here for the paradox that the sage would call even torture 'sweet.'

• Moral Letters to Lucilius §7.67.15 Epicurus

  Epicurus (341--270 BC), founder of the rival Epicurean school; Seneca again invokes his paradox that the sage would call even torture 'sweet,' a word Seneca himself declines to use of so stern a good.

• Moral Letters to Lucilius §14.92.25 Epicurus

  Epicurus of Athens (341–270 BC), founder of the rival school that made pleasure the good; Seneca quotes his deathbed letter calling his last, agonized day 'most happy.'