Vatican Saying 76
From Epicurus Wiki
<<Prev | Vatican Sayings | Next>>
Translation
Analysis
This text is obviously an excerpt from some (non-extant) letter, presumably written by Epicurus to one of his students. (Usener suggests Leonteus of Lampsacus, Epicurus' senior by some years, which suggestion would logically support the phrase "as you grow old".) Epicurus expresses his gratification by the fact that this student has grown with age to be just as he (Epicurus) would have always exhorted him to be; moreover, this student has discerned what it means to practice philosophy for one's own use and enlightenment, and what it means to do so as a "public" interlocutor on the open forum of Greek philosophy. As this excerpt is of course incomplete, we are left to wonder what exactly that difference would have been in Epicurus' mind.
