There's nothing a priori good about equality. One person has three televisions, the other has two, so what?

The Epicureans denied that the gods had created the world and also denied that they played any role in it.

The higher the coefficient of inequality (Gini coefficient) in a society, the worse things tend to be for those at the bottom.

I have to say that some philosophers such as the late Bernard Williams, and I would include myself in this group, would say that tranquillity is overrated as the goal of life.

We have to gamble, and sometimes lose as George Ainslie argues; this keeps the appetite for life sharp.

'Contract' succeeded 'status' as the basic organising principle in modern political vs. ancient society.

Atomism had no absolute 'above' and 'below' and no such rulers, so favoured the undersranding of justice as an agreement amongst equals.

Epicurus thought of justice as an agreement to prevent people harming and being harmed.

Epicurus was not at all interested in what we would call the problems of mass society, and he thought civic politics was just trouble and to be avoided by the wise.

Claims like 'Slavery is wrong' are not fully common-sensical, so they must be at least partly theoretical.

The (atomic) soul is mortal, and the best life is the one with the least pain and the most pleasure.

You can create the best out of your life by understanding the wealth of time and converting that time into the life that you were created to live.

Loves are like empires: when the idea they are founded on crumbles, they too, fade away.

Wars are times of intense technological transformation, because societies invest – sometimes with extensive borrowing – when and where matters of life and death are at stake.

The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind.

A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others.

Many, many steeples would have to be stacked one on top of another to reach from the bottom to the surface of the sea.

Well, I thought, last night I paid my dues. I faced death. Now I can stay.

Laughter is the very essence of religion. Seriousness is never religious, cannot be religious. Seriousness is of the ego, part of the very disease. Laughter is egolessness.

My life was the best omelette you could make with a chainsaw