Letter to Menoeceus and Principal Doctrines, in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book X (tr. Robert Drew Hicks, 1925)

Their wordsAccustom thyself to believe that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply sentience, and death is the privation of all sentience; therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an illimitable time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality.

Their wordsAgain, we regard independence of outward things as a great good, not so as in all cases to use little, but so as to be contented with little if we have not much, being honestly persuaded that they have the sweetest enjoyment of luxury who stand least in need of it, and that whatever is natural is easily procured and only the vain and worthless hard to win.

Their wordsBy pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul.

Their wordsIt is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living pleasantly.

Their wordsNature’s wealth at once has its bounds and is easy to procure; but the wealth of vain fancies recedes to an infinite distance.

Their wordsOf all the means which are procured by wisdom to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.