Personally I hold the opinion — I shall express it though the members of our school may protest — that the teachings of Epicurus are upright and holy and, if you consider them closely, austere; for his famous doctrine of pleasure is reduced to small and narrow proportions, and the rule that we Stoics lay down for virtue, this same rule he lays down for pleasure — he bids that it obey Nature. But it takes a very little luxury to satisfy Nature! What then is the case? Whoever applies the term “happiness” to slothful idleness and the alternate indulgence in gluttony and lust, looks for a good sponsor for his evil course, and when, led on by an attractive name, he has found this one, [15] the pleasure he pursues is not the form that be is taught, but the form that he has brought, and when he begins to think that his vices accord with the teacher’s maxims, he indulges in them no longer timidly, and riots in them, not now covertly, but from this time on in broad daylight. [16] And so I shall not say, as do most of our sect, that the school of Epicurus is an academy of vice, but this is what I say — it has a bad name, is of ill repute, and yet undeservedly. How can anyone know this who has not been admitted to the inner shrine? Its mere outside gives ground for scandal and incites to evil hopes. The case is like that of a strong man dressed up in a woman’s garb; you maintain your chastity, your virility is unimpaired, your body is free from base submission — but in your hand is a tambourine [17]! Therefore you should choose some honorable superscription and a motto that in itself appeals to the mind; the one that stands has attracted only the vices.
Whosoever has gone over to the side of virtue, has given proof of a noble nature; he who follows pleasure is seen to be weakly, broken, losing his manhood, and on the sure path to baseness unless someone shall establish for him some distinction between pleasures, so that he may know which of them lie within the bounds of natural desire, which sweep headlong onward and are unbounded and are the more insatiable the more they are satisfied. Come then! let virtue lead the way, and every step will be safe. Then, too, it is the excess of pleasure that harms; but in the case of virtue there need be no fear of any excess, for in virtue itself resides moderation. That cannot be a good that suffers from its own magnitude. Besides, to creatures endowed with a rational nature what better guide can be offered than reason? Even if that combination [18] pleases you, if you are pleased to proceed toward the happy life in such company, let virtue lead the way, let pleasure attend her — let it hover about the body like its shadow. To hand over virtue, the loftiest of mistresses, to be the handmaid of pleasure is the part of a man who has nothing great in his soul.