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1 " Is it intelligent to make ourselves miserable while living in the past, haunted by memories while being inexorably swallowed by them? Whenever we reminisce about our past life, we are advised in our tradition to be in a state of gratefulness. Be mindful of nurturing unnecessary grief and staying stuck in old pain. "
― Hiram Crespo , Tending the Epicurean Garden
2 " There is a distinction between going after desirable things in life and needing them for our happiness. We can go after those things with detachment, without our moods ever being affected by the results of our obligations and efforts. This is an important part of the Epicurean art of living the good life. "
3 " Ingratitude is a bad habit by which we needlessly punish ourselves. When we no longer have the things we enjoy, we miss them and long for the past, long for what is not there, long to escape. Being always mindfully unhappy and mindlessly happy is not a prudent way to live. The Epicurean must train himself to be mindfully happy. "
4 " Without the reference points of pleasure and pain, people invent imaginary and abstract standards for ethics that are divorced from reality and generate vast amounts of unnecessary suffering. Pleasure is the only >real< ethical guide. It returns our conversations about ethics to the natural context where these conversations belong: the well-being of sentient beings. "
5 " A philosopher's words are empty if they do not heal the suffering of mankind. For just as medicine is useless if it does not remove sickness from the body, so philosophy is useless if it does not remove suffering from the soul. —Epicurus "
6 " We need a philosophy for mature adults, not fables and false consolations for children. "
7 " In order to fight the habit of paying attention to that which is lacking and which produces craving and desire, one remedy endorsed by both Epicurus and research by social scientists is the daily practice of gratitude: the act of becoming instantly aware that we are blessed. "
