"Principal Doctrines" - читать интересную книгу автора (Epicurus)

be, directed by reason throughout the course of his life.

17. The just person enjoys. the greatest peace of mind,
while the unjust is full of the utmost disquietude.

18. Pleasure in the body admits no increase when once
the pain of want has been removed; after that it only admits
of variation. The limit of pleasure in the mind, however, is
reached when we reflect on the things themselves and their
congeners which cause the mind the greatest alarms.

19. Unlimited time and limited time afford an equal
amount of pleasure, if we measure the limits of that
pleasure by reason.

20. The body receives as unlimited the limits of
pleasure; and to provide it requires unlimited time. But the
mind, grasping in thought what the end and limit of the body
is, and banishing the terrors of futurity, procures a
complete and perfect life, and has no longer any need of
unlimited time. Nevertheless it does not shun pleasure, and
even in the hour of death, when ushered out of existence by
circumstances, the mind does not lack enjoyment of the best
life.

21. He who understands the limits of life knows how
easy it is to procure enough to remove the pain of want and
make the whole of life complete and perfect. Hence he has no
longer any need of things which are not to be won save by
labor and conflict.

22. We must take into account as the end all that
really exists and all clear evidence of sense to which we
refer our opinions; for otherwise everything will be full of
uncertainty and confusion.

23. If you fight against all your sensations, you will
have no standard to which to refer, and thus no means of
judging even those judgments which you pronounce false.

24. If you reject absolutely any single sensation
without stopping to discriminate with respect to that which
awaits confirmation between matter of opinion and that which
is already present, whether in sensation or in feelings or
in any immediate perception of the mind, you will throw into
confusion even the rest of your sensations by your
groundless belief and so you will be rejecting the standard
of truth altogether. If in your ideas based upon opinion you
hastily affirm as true all that awaits confirmation as well
as that which does not, you will not escape error, as you