The Book of Epicurus 1 · Handed down in the Garden, taken from his letters and fragments
He comes after Aristotle. He appeals to no god and promises no afterlife. This book is chosen by the six axioms: what accords is set forward, what runs against is set back and not deleted. (cf. Acts 5.29)
1.1There are four remedies for the mind.
1.2First: there is no need to fear god.
1.3Second: there is no need to worry about death.
1.4Third: what is good is easy to get.
1.5Fourth: what is terrible is easy to endure.
1.6The four together say one thing: most of what you fear is outside your fence. (cf. The Covenant 5.2)
1.7"No need to fear god" is not the claim that there is no god. It is the claim that what has nothing to do with you need not be feared.
1.8A god who changes his mind because of your offering is not a god. He is an official.
1.9Those before us said: god is the law. (cf. Prologue 1.7) A law takes no offerings.
1.10"What is good is easy to get" holds because what you truly need is little: bread, water, friends, and the absence of pain.
1.11The rest is added on. And the more the added thing costs, the more you believe you cannot do without it.
1.12The fourth is the hardest to believe. Sharp pain is short and long pain is mild; and if it is both long and sharp, it will end you, and then there will be nothing left to endure.
1.13This is the remedy we believe least. He died of the stone, and was in pain fourteen days. He wrote in a letter that those fourteen days were happy ones. We record it and pass no judgement.