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One of three letters of Epicurus that survive complete, because Diogenes Laertius copied them into his “Lives of the Eminent Philosophers” (3rd century CE). In a few pages it sums up Epicurean ethics for a general reader. The gods are blessed and immortal and are not to be feared. Desires are sorted into natural and necessary, merely natural, and empty ones; only the first must be satisfied for a happy life. Pleasure is the beginning and goal of a blessed life, yet Epicurus rejects the charge of indulgence: what he means is freedom from pain in the body and from trouble in the soul. Prudence (phronēsis) is the greatest good.

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Podjęte w

• De rerum naturaok. 55 p.n.e. · Lukrecjusz
• Listy moralne do Lucyliuszaok. 65 · Seneka Młodszy
• Syntagma philosophicum1658 · Pierre Gassendi

Krytykowane w

• De finibus bonorum et malorumok. 45 p.n.e. · Cyceron