Principal Doctrine 15

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Translation

Natural wealth is both limited and easily obtained, but vanity is insatiable.

Analysis

This extremely brief and condensed Principal Doctrine lays the foundation of Epicurus' doctrine of the desires, elaborated in Principal Doctrine 29 and Principal Doctrine 30. Epicurus posits as a logical cornerstone that "natural wealth", i.e. self-sufficiency, as defined by the satisfaction of very basic, natural needs, is finite, and easy to attain, e.g. we need some potable liquid in order to stay alive, and water is amply available.

Yet it is vanity, kenodoxia (literally, "empty belief") that mars our natural pursuit of happiness, as it defines wealth as something infinite; aiming at such a movable target, which tends to get further away from us the harder we race behind it, causes undue anxiety. With poignant choice of word, Epicurus tells us that this chase after a presumably ever rising level of wealth nevertheless "descends" into the infinite; the implicit oxymoron must certainly have been intentional.

By placing these two opposites in a simple, epigrammatic antithesis, Epicurus sets the stage for his recommendation of the "simple, natural life".