The wise man thinks of fame just enough to avoid being despised.

It is impossible for someone to dispel his fears about the most important matters if he doesn't know the nature of the universe but still gives some credence to myths. So without the study of nature there is no enjoyment of pure pleasure.

I have never wished to cater to the crowd; for what I know they do not approve, and what they approve I do not know.

Pleasure is the first good. It is the beginning of every choice and every aversion. It is the absence of pain in the body and of troubles in the soul.

There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men.

An irreligious man is not one who denies the gods of the majority, but one who applies to the gods the opinions of the majority. For what most men say about the gods are not ideas derived from sensation, but false opinions, according to which the greatest evils come to the wicked, and the greatest blessings come to the good from the gods.

Man was not intended by nature to live in communities and be civilized.