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A few quotes from Epicurus (342-270 B.C.E.), with comments

• "Of the things that wisdom prepares for insuring lifelong happiness, by far the greatest is the possession of friends."
• "In general, justice is the same for all, a thing found useful by men in their relations with each other. But it does not follow that it is the same for all in each individual place and circumstance."
• "If one makes a law and it does not prove useful in men's relationships with each other, it is no longer just in its essence."
• "There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men in their various relations with each other, in whatever their circumstances they may be, that they will neither injure nor be injured."
• "Natural justice is a compact resulting from expediency by which men seek to prevent one man from injuring others and to protect him from being injured by them."
• Cicero: "Epicurus declares that it is not possible to live happily unless one lives wisely, honorably, and justly, nor to live wisely, honorably, and justly without living happily".
• "Chance does not give man good and evil to make his life happy or miserable, but it does provide opportunities for great good or evil."
• Fortune seldom troubles the wise man. Reason has controlled his greatest and most important affairs, controls them throughout his life, and will continue to control them.
• Those desires that do not bring pain if they are not satisfied are not necessary; and they are easily thrust aside whenever to satisfy them appears difficult or likely to cause injury."
• "It is not the man who destroys the gods of popular belief who is impious, but he who describes the gods in terms accepted by the many."
• "After accepting god as the immortal and blessed being depicted by popular opinion, do not ascribe to him anything in addition that is alien to immortality or foreign to blessedness, but rather believe about him whatever can uphold his blessed immortality." Comment: A god understood would be no god at all. Comment: To think that god is as we can think him to be is blasphemy. Comment: Every description of god destroys god.
• "It is not possible for one to rid himself of his fears about the most important things if he does not understand the nature of the universe but dreads some of the things he has learned in myths.
• "While we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist. It is therefore nothing either to the living or the dead since it is not present to the living, and the dead no longer are."
  Noble M. Notas