Epicurus Quotes
Remember that the future is neither ours nor wholly not ours, so that we may neither count on it as sure to come nor abandon hope of it as certain not to be.
Epicurus. "Letter to Menoeceus." The Epicurus Reader: Selected Writings and Testimonia, translated by Brad Inwood and L.P. Gerson, Hackett Publishing, 1994, p. 29.
1st Earl of Beaconsfield. He describes this as “the National Motto of England.” Many people associate the phrase with Charles Dicken’s (David Copperfield) character Mr. Micawber, but this was written 22 years after Disraeli.
His perspective is that it takes major compromise on both parties to make peace. As long as one or both of the parties have hope that they do not have to compromise, they will not and peace is not achieved. At the same time, if either part is certain that they are right or will win in the end, they will not likely compromise—hence Hopkin’s statement.
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.
