Cicero
Sources
"De Natura Deorum"On the Nature of the Gods by Cicero is written as a dialogue between Cicero and representatives from Epicurean, Stoic and Academic Sceptic schools. Book 1 contains the discourse of Velleius — a Senator and Epicurean — which consists of three parts: a general attack on Platonist and Stoic cosmology; a historical review of the earlier philosophers; and an exposition of Epicurean theology. |
"De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum"On the Ends of Good and Evil is another major work by Roman author Cicero. Books 1 and 2 present a dialogue regarding Epicureanism. |
Cicero's Tusculan DisputationsThis collection by Cicero is not about Epicureanism but contains important references. |
Quotations
"For my part..."“For my part I find no meaning which I can attach to what is termed good, if I take away from it the pleasures obtained by taste, if I take away the pleasures which come from listening to music, if I take away too the charm derived by the eyes from the sight of figures in movement, or other pleasures by any of the senses in the whole man.” |
"Let us imagine a man..."“Let us imagine a man living in the continuous enjoyment of numerous and vivid pleasures alike of body and of mind, undisturbed either by the presence or by the prospect of pain: what possible state of existence could we describe as being more excellent or more desirable?” — Torquatus, in Cicero’s De Finibus, Bonorum et Malorum. |