"[on Epicurus] His starting point is a conviction that apathy is impossible, and that pleasure — though not necessarily sensual pleasure — is the only conceivable, and quite legitimate, end of life and action. “Nature leads every organism to prefer its own good to every other good” — even the stoic finds a subtle pleasure in renunciation. “We must not avoid pleasures, but we must select them”. Epicurus, then, is no epicurean, he exalts the joys of intellect rather than those of sense; he warns against pleasures that excite and disturb the soul which they should rather quite and appease. In the end he proposes to seek not pleasure in its usual sense, but ataraxia — tranquility, equaninimity, repose of mind; all of which trembles on the verge of Zeno’s “Apathy”"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesPhilosophers from the United StatesMemoirists from the United StatesEducators from the United StatesSocialists from the United States
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Will_Durant
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Will Durant
William James Durant (5 November 1885 – 7 November 1981) was an American historian, philosopher and writer, best remembered for his works The Story of Philosophy, and The Story of Civilization.
70 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Will Durant →
Related Quotes
"Perhaps in return for conquest, arrogance and spoliation, India will teach us the tolerance and gentleness of the mat…"
"It is true that even across the Himalayan barrier India has sent to us such questionable gifts as grammar and logic, …"
"Even in Europe and America, this wistful theosophy has won millions upon millions of followers, from lonely women and…"
""As flowing rivers disappear in the sea, losing their name and form, thus a wise man, freed from name and form, goes …"
"They are the oldest extant philosophy and psychology of our race; the surprisingly subtle and patient effort of man t…"
"India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages: she was the mother of our philos…"
"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance."
"Surely, the time has come for the intellectuals, the liberals, and the radicals of the world to speak out about this …"
"Nothing in all literature is so depressing as the “Dissertations” of the slave [Epictetus], unless it be the “Meditat…"
"...Lucretius talked epicureanism stoically (like Heine’s Englishman taking his pleasures sadly), and concluded on his…"