#principle doctrines

The purest security is that which comes from a quiet life and withdrawal from the many, although a certain degree of security from others does come by means of the power to repel attacks and by means of prosperity.

Let nothing be done in your life which will cause you to fear if it is discovered by your neighbor.

The justice of nature is a pledge of reciprocal usefulness, neither to harm one another nor be harmed.

Some people want to become famous and respected, believing that this is the way to acquire security against others. Thus if the life of such people is secure, they acquire the natural good; but if it is not secure, they do not have that for the sake of which they strove from the beginning according to what is naturally congenial.

Natural wealth is both limited and easy to acquire. But wealth as defined by groundless opinions extends without limit.

It is useless to obtain security from others while the things above and below the Earth, and generally the things in the unbounded, remain as objects of suspicion.

It is impossible for someone ignorant about the nature of the universe but still suspicious about the subjects of the myths to dissolve their feelings of fear about the most important matters. So it is impossible to receive unmixed pleasures without knowing philosophy.

If all pleasures were condensed and present at once, both in time and in the whole compound of body and mind, the most important parts of our nature, then pleasures would never differ from one another.