Key Epicurean Texts
Below are links to our collection of texts here at EpicureanFriends.com, as well as links to other resources and our Recommended Reading list. Click here for our Discussion Forums Dedicated To The Ancient Texts Relevant To Epicurus.
Texts Written By Epicureans
- Epicurus' Letter to Herodotus. Epicurus' primary letter on physics and the beginning points of his philosophy. A PDF prepared by Tau Phi with three parallel public domain translations of this and the other letters of Epicurus is here. As of this writing 4/7/25, a work-in-progress of a side-by-side page is here, but the text and especially the line numbers are not yet reliable.
- Epicurus' Letter to Pythocles. Epicurus' primary letter on understanding the phenomena we see in the sky.
- Epicurus' Letter to Menoeceus. Epicurus' primary letter on ethics and how to live.
- Lucretius' "On The Nature of Things" The monumental poetic presentation of Epicurean philosophy. This link takes you to the EpicureanFriends Lucretius Navigation Guide where you can select from several Lucretius translations. Please post comments and questions in the Lucretius forum here. A three column topical outline and finding aid for Lucretius is here. For easy linking to particular sections, a side-by-side version with three public domain translations is here.
- Diogenes of Oinoanda's Inscription. This link takes you to a page in Catalonia where the Martin Ferguson Smith translation is available.
- Twelve Fundamentals of Nature. This list of twelve observations about Nature no longer survives, but various commentators have suggested its contents based on what survives in the Letter to Herodotus and Lucretius Books One And Two.
- Philodemus Materials. | On Signs / On Methods of Inference | On Anger | These are very valuable, but are often fragmentary and require reconstruction, so they must be interpreted with caution.
Compilations / Commentaries
- Biography of Epicurus By Diogenes Laertius. The ancient biography of Epicurus, containing several letters and the list of his key doctrines. A PDF prepared by Tau Phi with three parallel public domain translations of this and the other letters of Epicurus is here. As of this writing 4/7/25, a work-in-progress of a side-by-side page is here, but the text and especially the line numbers are not yet reliable.
- Torquatus from "On Ends." An excellent presentation of the Epicurean view of the relationship between "Pleasure" and "Virtue." This document was prepared by Cicero based on Epicurean texts available to him around 50 BC. Click the following for the Complete On Ends as translated by Reid.
- Velleius from "On The Nature of the Gods." A presentation on the Epicurean view of the gods as they exist in the intermundia. As with "On Ends," Cicero's "On the Nature of the Gods" was prepared based presumably on Epicurean authorities of his time.
- Principal Doctrines. This list of forty doctrines focuses on attitudes and observations important in living an Epicurean life.
- Vatican Collection of Epicurean Sayings. This list of Epicurean sayings was found in the Vatican Library.
- Letter to Idomeneus. Epicurus' letter on his dying day.
- The Will of Epicurus. Epicurus' last will and testament.
- Usener's Epicurea. The original of this document is in Greek and Latin. Click here for the latest information on the Harris pdf version.
- EpicureanFriends Fragment Collection (Curated Collection of Usener and Bailey's Collection of Fragments). A work-in-progress "Topical Collection" is here.
Other Texts And Documents
- List of Treatises Available At Archive.org and other places (NewEpicurean.com Library page)
- Letters Between Cicero and Cassius Longinus
- Plutarch - That It Is Not Possible To Live Pleasurably By The Doctrines of Epicurus
- Letters Between Cicero And Cassius Longinus (at Attalus.org)
- Lucian of Samosata (texts available here)
Significant Pro-Epicurean Texts Written After The Ancient Period
- Bernier's Three Discourses On Happiness, Virtue, and Liberty by Gassendi
- Gassendi's Life of Epicurus from the Thomas Stanley Encyclopedia
- The Letter of Cosma Raimondi to Ambrogio Tignosi
- Lorenzo Valla's On The True And False Good
- Frances Wright's "A Few Days In Athens" - Forum Discussion - Full Text
Reading Recommendations
We are frequently asked about a list of recommended reading. Click Below for our recommended reading list:
Can You Suggest A Reading List For New Students of Epicurus? - Epicureanfriends.com
www.epicureanfriends.com
Usener's Epicurea
Many fragments either by or referencing Epicureans in the ancient world can be found in Herman Usener's Epicurea. Unfortunately for us, that work is largely a collection of Greek and Latin texts, and Usener himself wrote in German, so we must generally resort to translations. Click here for our page on Usener and a PDF of Usener's collection prepared by Bryan Harris
Notes
Here is a "library" page at NewEpicurean.com with links to where many additional translations are available for free on the internet.
Below is a chart of topics linked to the places where they are discussed here at EpicureanFriends.com:
Trace The Major Concepts To The Key Documents
Physics -- The Nature of the Universe
- Nothing comes from nothing, and nothing passes into nothing — Herodotus §39, Lucretius I.146, Lucretius I.215
- The universe is composed of atoms and void — there is no third kind of thing — Herodotus §40-41, Lucretius I.329, Lucretius I.430
- Atoms are imperceptibly small and cannot be divided beyond a certain minimum — Herodotus §56-58, Lucretius I.265, Lucretius I.551
- A body's perceptible qualities — including color and sensation — emerge from how its atoms are arranged; the atoms themselves possess none of these qualities — Herodotus §69-70, Lucretius I.449, Lucretius II.730, Lucretius II.865
- The eternal, unchanging atoms account for the transmission of the stable continuity of nature over time — Lucretius I.584
- The universe is unbounded and infinite in extent, with no center — Herodotus §42, Lucretius I.921, Lucretius I.1052
- Atoms are in continuous motion, endlessly colliding — Herodotus §43, Lucretius II.62
- The swerve of the atom at no fixed time or place breaks the chain of strict causation — Lucretius II.216
- Atoms come in a great but not infinite variety of shapes — Lucretius II.333, Lucretius II.478
- Countless other worlds exist throughout the infinite universe, some with life in them like ours, some with life that is different — Herodotus §74, Pythocles §89, Lucretius II.1048
- The world was not made for men by the gods; it formed through the natural coming together of atoms — Velleius §XX, Lucretius V.156, Lucretius V.416
- The regular motions of the heavens have no divine governor — nature runs herself — Herodotus §77, Pythocles §97, Lucretius II.1090
- The divine "craftsman" argument for a created universe is false — Velleius §VIII-IX
- The world itself is not a living or spherical god — Velleius §X-XIII
- The Stoics' creator-gods are just as incoherent as any rival theory — Velleius §XIV
- We expect the gods to possess human form — Velleius §XVIII
- All things exist equably distributed: a corresponding immortal exists for every mortal kind — Velleius §XIX
- The mind and soul are material in nature — bodies of very fine particles — Herodotus §63-67, Lucretius III.161
- The "harmony" theory of the soul is false — Lucretius III.94
- The mind, soul, and body are born and grow and die together — Lucretius III.323
- The senses — sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell — all work through physical flows and impacts of atoms — Lucretius IV.54, Lucretius IV.522, Lucretius IV.615, Lucretius IV.673
- The body's faculties were not created for our use, but existed before their use was discovered — Lucretius IV.823
- The mind directs the body — Lucretius IV.858
- Dreams occur because the mind processes images while asleep — Lucretius IV.907
- The world is not eternal — it is mortal, and will one day pass away — Lucretius V.55, Lucretius V.324
- The sun, moon, and stars are, for us, the size they appear to be, and move and shine by natural processes — Pythocles §91, Lucretius V.564, Lucretius V.614
- The earth is mother of living things — Lucretius V.783
- Early humans arose and progressed naturally — Lucretius V.945
- Language was developed naturally — Lucretius V.1028
- Religion arose from fear of the unexplained and misinterpretation of images — Lucretius V.1161
- Storms, tempests, thunder, and lightning have natural causes, not divine ones — Pythocles §104, Lucretius VI.43, Lucretius VI.96, Lucretius VI.397, Lucretius VI.423
- Magnetic attraction and repulsion have natural causes — Lucretius VI.906
- Plagues have natural causes — Lucretius VI.1090
Canonics -- The Science of Knowledge
- Epicurus' standard of truth was "The Canon that fell from heaven" — our one fixed standard of judgment — Torquatus Book I §63
- We must first fix clearly what each word means before we can discuss that which cannot be seen — Herodotus §37-38
- The senses are the foundation of all knowledge — reasoning itself depends on them, and it is nonsense to claim nothing can be known — Lucretius IV.469, Lucretius IV.478, Lucretius IV.500
- Perception happens through movement of atoms (images) that strike the senses and mind directly — Herodotus §46-50, Lucretius IV.722
- The senses themselves never lie; illusions have natural physical explanations, and false judgments come from opinion added by the mind, not from the senses — Lucretius IV.353, Lucretius IV.462
- There are two kinds of claims: what's logically certain, and what's merely provisional — Pythocles §86-87
- Where more than one natural explanation fits the evidence equally well, all such explanations should be accepted as possible — Herodotus §79-80, Pythocles §95-96
- The preconception argument for our knowledge of gods: prolepsis provides an innate, untaught predisposition that gods exist — Velleius §XVII
Ethics -- Nature's Path To The Best Life
- The gods are blessed and immortal — Menoeceus §123
- Death is nothing to us; living well and dying well are the same training, and nature herself would rebuke us for complaining that life must end — Menoeceus §124, Menoeceus §126, Lucretius III.830, Lucretius III.931
- Pleasure is the beginning and end of the blessed life — Menoeceus §129
- The cradle argument: every animal at birth seeks pleasure and shuns pain — Torquatus Book I §30
- Pleasure (Venus/Nature) is the leader and motivator of all life — Lucretius I.1
- The complete removal of pain is itself the limit of pleasure — absence of pain and pleasure are the same thing, not two different states — Torquatus Book I §37-39, Torquatus Book II §17
- A life of continuous, undisturbed pleasure is the most desirable state achievable — happiness is nothing else than a life of pleasure — Torquatus Book I §40, Torquatus Book I §54
- Cicero coins "static" and "kinetic" pleasure — Torquatus Book II §7-11
- The three-category classification of desires — Menoeceus §127
- Self-sufficiency increases enjoyment of luxury — Menoeceus §130-131
- Prudence is more precious than philosophy itself — Menoeceus §132
- Wisdom is valued because it produces pleasure — Torquatus Book I §43-46
- Temperance: self-control valued for the greater pleasure it secures — Torquatus Book I §47-48
- Courage: explained by its service to pleasure through elimination of fear and pain — Torquatus Book I §49
- Justice: wrongdoing is punished by anxiety, not owed for its own sake — Torquatus Book I §50-54
- "No one can live pleasantly without living wisely, honorably, and justly" — Torquatus Book I §58-61
- Friendship: "of all the means to happiness that wisdom has devised, none is greater" — Torquatus Book I §65-70
- The wise man is freed from fear of fate, divination, and a meddling god — neither blind necessity nor mere chance rules his life — Velleius §XX, Menoeceus §133-134
- Understanding nature philosophically is itself pleasurable, freeing the mind from needless fear and bringing it health — Lucretius II.1, Lucretius IV.1
- Epicurus was the liberating conqueror of false religion, the pioneer whose wisdom made him godlike, and the physician who diagnoses and cures the diseases caused by false ideas — Lucretius I.62, Lucretius III.1, Lucretius V.1, Lucretius VI.1
- Intoxicating romance can be very dangerous, but its hazards can be avoided — Lucretius IV.1037
- Humans gradually learned the benefits of society by trial and error, not divine guidance — Lucretius V.1105
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