Full Idea
It is not drinking bouts or enjoying boys and women or consuming fish which produces the pleasant life, but sober calculation which searches out reasons for every choice, and drives out opinions which produce turmoil of the soul.
Gist of Idea
The best life is not sensuality, but rational choice and healthy opinion
Source
Epicurus (Letter to Menoeceus [c.291 BCE], 132)
Book Reference
Epicurus: 'The Epicurus Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B. /Gerson,L. [Hackett 1994], p.31
A Reaction
This more or less sums up what I would call the philosophical life. Spontaneity is good, and some pleasures are killed by excessive thought, but on the whole actions are always better if good reasons are found, and error brings chaos.