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Full Idea
I spit on the fine and those who emptily admire it, when it doesn't make any pleasure.
Gist of Idea
Fine things are worthless if they give no pleasure
Source
Epicurus (fragments/reports [c.289 BCE]), quoted by Julia Annas - The Morality of Happiness Ch.16
Book Ref
Annas,Julia: 'The Morality of Happiness' [OUP 1995], p.340
A Reaction
in Athenaeus
| 5837 | Things are both good and fine by the same standard [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 5845 | Niceratus learnt the whole of Homer by heart, as a guide to goodness [Xenophon] |
| 139 | A good person is bound to act well, and this brings happiness [Plato] |
| 5142 | Oxen, horses and children cannot be happy, because they cannot perform fine deeds [Aristotle] |
| 2689 | Good people enjoy virtuous action, just as musicians enjoy beautiful melodies [Aristotle] |
| 101 | Slaves can't be happy, because they lack freedom [Aristotle] |
| 3562 | Fine things are worthless if they give no pleasure [Epicurus] |
| 7499 | Stoicism was an elitist option to lead a beautiful life [Stoic school, by Foucault] |
| 14815 | We get enormous pleasure from tales of noble actions [Nietzsche] |
| 7501 | Why couldn't a person's life become a work of art? [Foucault] |