Pleasure Is The Beginning And

Is God Willing To Prevent Evil, But Not Able? Then He Is Not Omnipotent. Is He Able, But Not Willing? Then He Is Malevolent. Is He Both Able And Willing? Then Whence Cometh Evil? Is He Neither Able Nor Willing? Then Why Call Him God?

Only The Just Man Enjoys Peace Of Mind.

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.

We Begin Every Act Of Choice And Avoidance From Pleasure, And It Is To Pleasure That We Return Using Our Experience Of Pleasure As The Criterion Of Every Good Thing.

Accustom Yourself To Believe That Death Is Nothing To Us, For Good And Evil Imply Awareness, And Death Is The Privation Of All Awareness; Therefore A Right Understanding That Death Is Nothing To Us Makes The Mortality Of Life Enjoyable, Not By Adding To Life An Unlimited Time, But By Taking Away The Yearning After Immortality. For Life Has No Terror; For Those Who Thoroughly Apprehend That There Are No Terrors For Them In Ceasing To Live.