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Epicureans and Stoics
Edited by the Axios Institute
“This little book contains some of the greatest wisdom literature of the ages. Everyone, and especially young people, should be familiar with it.”
—Alan L. Boegehold (Emeritus Professor of Classics, Brown University)
Summary
Epicureanism and Stoicism occupy a unique place in the history of human thought. They were philosophies, not religions, but they came to take the place of religion for the more educated ancient Greeks and Romans.
They answered questions about ultimate reality, right conduct, and the way for human beings to find meaning and happiness in their lives.
Both philosophies taught, as Shakespeare later put it, that "Nothing is but thinking makes it so." If we want to be happy and productive, we must strengthen and train our willful and wayward minds. There are echoes of the Buddha's Dhammapada, and it is noteworthy that Buddhism too began as a highly empirical philosophy rather than as a religion.
Including Passages By
Epicurus (c. 341-270 BCE); Greek philosopher
Lucretius (1st-c BCE); Roman philosopher and poet
Epictetus (c. 50-130); freed slave and Greco-Roman philosopher
Marcus Aurelius (121-80); Roman emperor and philosopher
