Epicurus Quotes
Empty is the argument of the philosopher which does not relieve any human suffering.
Epicurus. The Epicurus Reader: Selected Writings and Testimonia. Translated by Brad Inwood and L.P. Gerson, Hackett Publishing, 1994, p. 39.
Goldsmith is referring to the Roman philosopher, Lucius Annaeus Seneca (the Younger). See {47315}
This classic, notorious quotation was stated by President Herbert Hoover in the first year after the Stock Market Crash that triggered the Great Depression. It shows how out of touch Hoover and the Republican party was at the time. Unemployment was running around 25 percent and there was no social safety nets—people were literally starving and millions were homeless. Not only did Hoover oppose any unemployment relief, but he accused those who were advocating that of being unethical and immoral for doing so. His view was that the Federal Government should not interfere and that welfare or relief would weaken the moral fiber of the people. In 1932, the American Voters rejected him and choose FDR who advocated using the instrument of the Federal Government to ameliorate and who led the initiative for unemployment relief.
Epicurus (Ancient Greek: Ἐπίκουρος, romanized: Epíkouros; 341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy. He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Influenced by Democritus, Aristippus, Pyrrho, and possibly the Cynics, he turned against the Platonism of his day and established his own school, known as "the Garden", in Athens. Epicurus and his followers were known for eating simple meals and discussing a wide range of philosophical subjects. He openly allowed women and slaves to join the school as a matter of policy. Epicurus is said to have originally written over 300 works on various subjects, but the vast majority of these writings have been lost. Only three letters written by him—the letters to Menoeceus, Pythocles, and Herodotus—and two collections of quotes—the Principal Doctrines and the Vatican Sayings—have survived intact, along with a few fragments of his other writings. Most knowledge of his teachings comes from later authors, particularly the biographer Diogenes Laërtius, the Epicurean Roman poet Lucretius and the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus, and with hostile but largely accurate accounts by the Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus, and the Academic Skeptic and statesman Cicero.
