Vatican Saying 78
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Translation
Analysis
Along with Vatican Saying 52, this text is an exhuberant laud of friendship. While any Aristotelian (and, in fact, any philosopher in general) would surely rank the pursuit of wisdom as the primary occupation of, and appropriate for the high-minded, Epicurus quite tellingly couples it with friendship. In fact, Epicurus superordinates friendship, calling it "immortal".
This text is probably an excerpt from some other, larger context. As a stand-alone iteration, it leaves the question begged: how so is wisdom mortal, while friendship is immortal? The logical continuum is apostrophic, incomplete. If friendship is tantamount to bliss --a position that can be reasonably extrapolated from Epicurus' attitudes towards friendship-- it may be "immortal" in the sense that it is god-like; among like-minded friends, a man is as "immortally happy" as the gods themselves. This, however, is merely a speculative interpretation.
