Quotation
Last reviewed:
“It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life.”
Epicurus · Epicureanism · Ancient · early 3rd century BCE
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that pleasure, wisdom, and justice are not three rival aims: drop one and the pleasant life fails, and a just life that is not pleasant is not the life he is recommending either. A competing reading treats the line as a verbal trick that simply renames virtue as pleasure, which misses the claim that injustice brings fear and so ruins enjoyment. It is the fifth of the Principal Doctrines, the short memoranda Diogenes Laertius preserves, not a slogan from a letter. The pairing is the argument.
Did Epicurus really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Hicks's Loeb English of Kuriai Doxai 5. 'Well' renders kalōs. The doctrine ties pleasure to wisdom and justice instead of setting them against each other.
Where it comes from
Principal Doctrines 5, in Diogenes Laertius 10.140, R. D. Hicks's translation
Approximate date: early 3rd century BCE.
How to use it
A shortcut on a group expenses app in Manchester saves a tenner and then costs the group chat. The evening is worse, not better, once people are checking who paid. He would count that fear as part of the pleasure sum. A pleasant plan that needs concealment has already failed his test.
A mindset reading
Do not set 'what I enjoy' against 'what is fair' as if they were different faculties. Ask whether the enjoyment survives being known, and whether the fairness leaves a life you can actually live. The doctrine refuses both the grim moralist and the person who calls any appetite a philosophy.
Understand the philosophy
Epicurus answers the charge that pleasure-seekers must be willing to cheat. The key terms are the pleasant life, ataraxia's cousin, and justice, which for him is a compact not to harm or be harmed. Principal Doctrine 5 says the compact and the pleasure stand or fall together. Later critics who hear only 'do what you fancy' have not read this memorandum.
- happiness
- ethics
- virtue
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that pleasure, wisdom, and justice are not three rival aims: drop one and the pleasant life fails, and a just life that is not pleasant is not the life he is recommending either. A competing reading treats the line as a verbal trick that simply renames virtue as pleasure, which misses the claim that injustice brings fear and so ruins enjoyment. It is the fifth of the Principal Doctrines, the short memoranda Diogenes Laertius preserves, not a slogan from a letter. The pairing is the argument.
Did Epicurus really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Hicks's Loeb English of Kuriai Doxai 5. 'Well' renders kalōs. The doctrine ties pleasure to wisdom and justice instead of setting them against each other.
Which work is it in?
Principal Doctrines 5, in Diogenes Laertius 10.140, R. D. Hicks's translation Approximate date: early 3rd century BCE.