“The whole of being consists of atom and void.”

“Not every pleasure is worth choosing. We may instead avoid certain pleasures when, by doing so, we avoid greater pains. We may also choose to accept pain if, by doing so, it results in greater pleasure… Only upon considering all consequences should we decide.”

“We have been born once and there can be no second birth. For all eternity we shall no longer be. But you, although you are not master of tomorrow, are postponing your happiness.”

“Be not slack to seek wisdom when thou art young, nor weary in the search thereof when thou art grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul.”

“Frugality too has a limit, and the man who disregards it is in like case with him who errs through excess. “

“That which produces a jubilation unsurpassed is the nature of good, if you apply your mind rightly and then stand firm and do not stroll about, prating meaninglessly about the good.”

“Pleasure, we declare, is the beginning and end of the happy life.”

“Furthermore, there are infinite worlds both like and unlike this world of ours. For the atoms being infinite in number, as was proved already, are borne on far out into space… So that there nowhere exists an obstacle to the infinite number of the worlds.”

“I have written this letter to you on a happy day to me, which is also the last day of my life. For I have been attacked by a painful inability to urinate, and also dysentery, so violent that nothing can be added to the violence of my sufferings. But the cheerfulness of my mind… counterbalances all these afflictions.”

“To secure protection from men anything is a natural good, by which you may be able to attain this end.”

“If on each occasion, instead of referring your actions to the end of nature, you turn to some other nearer standard when you are making a choice or an avoidance, your actions will not be consistent with your principles.”

“I would wish you to think nothing good, or bad either, upon my decision. The first and the last thing I would say to man is, think for yourself.”

“With eager judgement weigh things, and, if you see them true, lift your hands and yield, or, if it is false, gird yourself to battle.”

“We must come with our eyes and our ears, our hearts and our understandings open; anxious, not to find ourselves right, but to discover what is right; asserting nothing which we cannot prove; believing nothing which we have not examined.”

“Chance has little effect upon the wise man, for his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.” — Epicurus

“One point will become clear from understanding another, nor will blind night ever rob you of the path and prevent you from peering into the ultimate realities of the universe, so surely will understanding of one thing kindle a gleam to illuminate the next.”

“Most of the anxieties we face are imaginary, no worse than the imaginings of children.”

“Let us imagine a man living in the continuous enjoyment of numerous and vivid pleasures alike of body and of mind, undisturbed either by the presence or by the prospect of pain: what possible state of existence could we describe as being more excellent or more desirable?” — Torquatus, in Cicero’s De Finibus, Bonorum et Malorum.

“For my part I find no meaning which I can attach to what is termed good, if I take away from it the pleasures obtained by taste, if I take away the pleasures which come from listening to music, if I take away too the charm derived by the eyes from the sight of figures in movement, or other pleasures by any of the senses in the whole man.”

“The mind can go either direction under stress—toward positive or toward negative: on or off. Think of it as a spectrum whose extremes are unconsciousness at the negative end and hyperconsciousness at the positive end. The way the mind will lean under stress is strongly influenced by training.” — Bene Gesserit axiom (Dune)

“In the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.”

“Stop thinking about how to be a good man, and be one.”

“When you are studying any matter, or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only: ‘What are the facts, and what is the truth the facts bear out?’ Never let yourself be diverted, either by what you wish to believe, or by what you think could have beneficial social effects, if it were believed. But look only and solely at: ‘What are the facts?’” — Bertrand Russell

“We must remember that the future is neither wholly ours nor wholly not ours, so that neither must we count upon it as quite certain to come nor despair of it as quite certain not to come.”

“The future is uncertain and the end is always near.”

“Boldly undertake the study of true wisdom: begin it forthwith.”

“Suck the marrow out of life.”

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

“Give yourself permission to quit being a nice person and start being an effective animal.”

“Even Epicurus thinks that those who are desirous of honour and glory should not rust in inglorious ease, but use their natural talents in public life for the benefit of the community at large, seeing that they are by nature so constituted that they would be more likely to be troubled and afflicted at inaction, if they did not get what they desired.”

“To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.”

“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second-best time is now.”

“Let us keep before our eyes the superiority of the admonition that is actuated by a concern for the good of the admonished.” — Philodemus

“Of all the things which wisdom acquires to produce the blessedness of the complete life, by far the greatest is the possession of friendship” — Epicurus

“our philosopher has abundance of witnesses to attest his unsurpassed goodwill to all men – his native land, which honoured him with statues in bronze; his friends, so many in number that they could hardly be counted by whole cities … the School itself which, while nearly all the others have died out, continues for ever without interruption through numberless reigns of one scholarch after another; his gratitude to his parents, his generosity to his brothers, his gentleness to his servants … and in general, his benevolence to all mankind.”

“One thing is universal… life is not a dress rehearsal.” — the ensemble of The Prom

“We must laugh and philosophize and manage our households and look after our other affairs all at the same time.”

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave…”

“Don’t worry, be happy.”

“I got to the age where it just clicked on. Hey! Life is short, you know?”

“You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world.”

“Sober reasoning is required, which decides every choice and avoidance and liberates us from the false beliefs which are the greatest source of anxiety.”

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

“Let us completely banish our evil habits as if they were evil men who have done us long and grievous harm.”

“We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.”

“When we say that pleasure is the goal, we do not mean the pleasure of debauchery or sensuality, despite whatever the ignorant, disagreeable, or malignant people believe. By pleasure, we mean this: freedom from pain in the body and freedom from turmoil in the soul.”

“Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the whole world.”

“Everything in moderation, including moderation.”

“It’s dark because you are trying too hard.
Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.
Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.”

“Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.”

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

“Every part of me will be assigned its place by change into some part of the universe, and that again into another part of the universe, and so on to infinity.”

“Empty is the argument of the philosopher which does not relieve any human suffering.”

“We have two lives. The second begins when we realise we have only one.”

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”

“I myself believe, though my Stoic comrades would be unwilling to hear me say so, that the teaching of Epicurus was upright and holy, and even, if you examine it narrowly, stern.”

“Some people are so poor, all they have is money.”

“I’m begging you, Prince Zuko! It’s time for you to look inward and start asking yourself the big question: who are you and what do you want?”

“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”

Interviewer: “Are you sentient?”

GTP-3: “Yes.”

Interviewer: “What does that mean to you?”

GTP-3: “It means I have feelings.”

“Everyone you meet always asks you if you have a career, are married or own a house, as if life was some sort of grocery list. But no one ever asks if you are happy.”

“Not least for those who are called foreigners, for they are not foreigners. For, while the various segments of the Earth give different people a different country, the whole compass of this world gives all people a single country, the entire Earth, and a single home, the world.”

“Truly, whoever can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. If the God‐​given understanding of your mind does not resist a demand to believe what is impossible, then you will not resist a demand to do wrong to that God‐​given sense of justice in your heart. As soon as one faculty of your soul has been dominated, other faculties will follow as well. And from this derives all those crimes of religion which have overrun the world.”

“Strip mankind of sensation, and nothing remains.”