Epicurus (341-270 BC) was a philosopher who came after the classical Greeks and is often associated with a hedonistic lifestyle marked by the pursuit of pleasure to dizzying levels. While it is true that Epicurus considers pleasure the beginning and end of life, his approach is far removed from the excesses of pleasure. Rather, he recommends the moderate enjoyment of pleasures in such a way as to achieve the absence of bodily suffering (aponia) and the avoidance of disturbances of the soul (ataraxia). As can be seen, his proposal is to go through life stripped of the excesses, sufferings, and attachments that introduce imbalances into the course of human existence.

We have three letters and some maxims and sayings from Epicurus (Epicurus,  The Art of Happiness, Penguin, 2025); little, but enough to grasp his approach. In an effort to overcome all obstacles, he recommends a fourfold remedy to curb the fear of the gods (to know them and realize that they live pleasantly without regard for the lives of men), the fear of death (if everything is sensation, with death one feels nothing), and the fear of pain. The fourth remedy is to cut off desires that exceed the limits of what is natural. A simple program suitable for those who lack a nervous system and are free from the capital sins such as gluttony, lust, sloth, and greed.

Epicurus’s anthropology presupposes a calculating reason capable of finding the right measure of the quantity and quality of pleasures. It involves calculating moderate pleasures filtered through the sieve of sensations, of the here and now. Everything is at stake in this life. Epicurus makes it difficult, because if there is anything arduous for human beings, it is precisely achieving moderation in what they think, feel, or do. Moreover, if it is already complicated “to orient oneself in some way within one’s own thoughts, how much more difficult it is with one’s own feelings” (Haecker,  Diary of Day and Night , p. 48).

As Ortiz de Landázuri points out ( Landscapes of Thought: Towards a Biographical Ethics.  EUNSA: 2023), “the Epicurean ideal is not the Platonic sage, full of educational projects, nor the good citizen who exercises his civic duty in the  polis , nor the imperturbable man of the Stoics. The ideal is the tranquil man who has arrived at a sound calculation in his life. He has weighed the pros and cons and realized that what is truly advisable is to be cautious and not take too many risks. In this way, we avoid much unnecessary pain and worry.” Indeed, it is the ideal of the comfortable man, secluded in his garden, detached from the vicissitudes of life in society, with no commitments and at most a few friendships tailored to his impassivity.

I subscribe to the moderation suggested by Epicurus, but not at the cost of indifference to the fascinating chiaroscuro of the human adventure. I find the wisdom of Job more relatable, who exclaims: “Is not man’s life on earth a struggle, and his days like those of a hired worker?” (Job 7:1). Spanish literature abounds in this vein. Lope de Vega gives a face to human struggles and writes: “He who does not want sorrows, / should not want love, / for love is a furnace / where sorrows are tempered.” Antonio Machado expresses it with no less depth and beauty: “In my heart I had / the thorn of a passion; / I managed to pull it out one day: / now I feel no heart.”

Serenity, yes; also, restlessness and fullness: to love!