Full Idea
Pleasure is the beginning and end of living happily, and we recognise this as the first good.
Gist of Idea
Pleasure is the first good in life
Source
Epicurus (Letter to Menoeceus [c.291 BCE], 128)
Book Reference
Epicurus: 'The Epicurus Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B. /Gerson,L. [Hackett 1994], p.30
A Reaction
We might enquire what we would live for if our capacities for pleasure were surgically removed. Would we still experience intellectual curiosity, or an aspiration to some cold and remote goodness?