Author: Cassius Amicus
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Explaining the True Nature of Life as a Pleasure: The Example of the Statue’s Hand
It seems to me there is a great deal to be learned from the section in Cicero’s “On Ends” where the Epicurean speaker is discussing the Stoic argument of the...
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Catius Cat Purrs Again: “Catius Cat And The Forty Mice”
I have now completed a second “Epicurean poem for children of all ages,” and I submit it for the reading and listening pleasure of the Epicurean public at the links...
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What the World Needs Now: Thoughts on Peter St. Andre’s “Letters on Epicurus: A Dialogue about Happiness”
In my last post I commented that I had learned of two recent updates by Peter St. Andre, and this is to comment on the second of those updates. But...
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“Epicurean Analysis” By Peter St. Andre
It is very helpful to me as a student of Epicurus to read the writings of other students of Epicurus and to see what they find interesting. That shouldn’t be...
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“What destroys a man more quickly than to work, think and feel without inner necessity, without any deep personal desire, without pleasure—as a mere automaton of duty?”
For an eloquent statement of the disaster of decadence that awaits those who disparage Pleasure, see the selections in bold red below. Consider how much of the worlds religions and...
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Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace) – Ode 3, 29
The entire poem is outstanding as is reproduced in full below, but here is a highlight (Dryden version): “Happy he, Self-centred, who each night can say My life is...
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Seneca’s Description of Epicurus’ “Supreme Good”
For purposes of this post I will put aside for a moment the question of whether search for a “Supreme Good” is a Stoic/Platonic rationalization of which Epicurus did or...
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Thoughts on Epicurus, Politics, “The Crowd,” and Nietzsche’s “The New Idol”
There are varying interpretations of what Epicurus meant when he advised us to avoid “the crowd” and to avoid devoting ourselves to a life of politics. In the pursuit of...
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A Few Words From The Man Who Said: “Epicurus had triumphed, and every respectable intellect in Rome was Epicurean.”
Today I am in the mood for some intense thinking about the depth to which the modern world has fallen from the Epicurean period. Where better to go for assistance...
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“We believed … that man was a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights and with an innate sense of justice…”
I am collecting on my page of Thomas Jefferson quotes each of the references I can find where he makes a statement that seems directly or indirectly to be a...