Nothing Is Sufficient

Epicurus has been a byword for indulgence for two thousand years, and it is the opposite of what he taught. He thought pleasure was the good, and so he studied it closely enough to see where it goes wrong. The pleasures that come from simple, natural needs are easily met and leave you at rest. The pleasures of more, of variety and luxury and status, never arrive anywhere. Each one sets the next bar. He lived in a garden on bread, water and friendship, and called a little cheese a feast.

The two sayings are a diagnosis and its cause. If enough seems little to you, nothing will be enough. And the cause is in the soul, not the food: an ungrateful greed that keeps wanting variety. “Ungrateful” is the precise word. The fault isn’t wanting things. It’s failing to register what you already have. A modern psychologist would call it adaptation. Epicurus called it ingratitude, and prescribed attention.