Discourses, Fragments, Handbook (Oxford World's Classics)

I will say that it is natural for the foot* to be clean, taken in isolation, but if you consider it as a foot and not in isolation, it will be appropriate for it also to step into mud, and trample on thorns, and sometimes even to be cut off for the sake of the body as a whole; for otherwise, it will no longer be a foot. [25] We should think in some

for human beings likewise, it would be a curse for them never to die; it is the same as not coming to ripeness, as not being harvested.

what is disagreeable in the fact that whatever is born must pass away?

For in that case, one would have to say that tumours develop for the good of the body just because they do in fact develop, and, in a word, that to fall into error is natural just because almost all of us, or at least most of us, do fall into error.

Nothing great comes into being all at once, for that is not the case even with a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me now, ‘I want a fig,’ I’ll reply, ‘That takes time.’ Let the fig tree first come into blossom and then bring forth its fruit, and then let the fruit grow to ripeness. [8] So if even the fruit of a fig tree doesn’t come to maturit

you. If you wish it, you are free; if you wish it, you’ll find fault with no one, you’ll cast blame on no one, and everything that comes about will do so in accordance with your own will and that of God.

If I were a nightingale, I would perform the work of a nightingale, and if I were a swan, that of a swan. But as it is, I am a rational being, and I must sing the praise of God.

It

For that reason, the most important task of a philosopher, and his first task, is to test out impressions and distinguish between them, and not to accept any impression unless it has been duly tested.

How can we still be social beings, then, if we have no natural affection for our offspring? And why is it, Epicurus, that you seek to dissuade the wise person from rearing children?