The philosopher who said happiness is needing less, not getting more. He built a garden where everyone was welcome and taught that death is nothing to us.
Four free booklets. One for every age. Download, read, share, and keep.
About This Philosopher
Epicurus (341–270 BCE) was born on the island of Samos and founded a philosophical community called the Garden in Athens around 307 BCE. The Garden was revolutionary: it welcomed women, slaves, and foreigners at a time when every other philosophical school was restricted to elite freeborn men. They ate simple meals together — barley bread, water, cheese — and devoted themselves to friendship and the cure of fear.
His philosophy is distilled in the tetrapharmakos, the four-part cure: don't fear god, don't fear death, what is good is easy to get, and what is terrible is easy to endure. He taught that happiness is ataraxia— undisturbedness of soul — and that the greatest wealth is needing little. He died in 270 BCE from kidney stones, writing a letter to a friend about the joy of their conversations. His last words: “Farewell, and remember my doctrines.”
WisdomForge adapts Epicurus across four age levels so the same core ideas grow with the reader.
The Booklets
Each booklet covers the same six chapter themes, shaped for the age reading it.
Ages 5–10
Gentle stories about a man who built a garden where everyone was welcome — women, slaves, foreigners, everyone. Six chapters on friendship, the four-part cure, and the secret of enough. Activities and conversation starters for young readers.
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Ages 11–14
Epicurus for middle-school readers: the tetrapharmakos, the three kinds of want, and the surprising idea that happiness is not getting more but needing less. Real-life scenarios, practical exercises, and discussion questions.
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Ages 15–18
A rigorous philosophical treatment for older teens. The death argument and its critics, the desire classification as cognitive reappraisal, ataraxia vs. Stoic apatheia, and the medical model of philosophy. Designed for readers ready to wrestle with hard questions.
Download PDFAdult
Epicurus as a serious practical philosophy for adults. No self-help padding. Six chapters on the four-part cure, the architecture of desire, the art of enough, the death argument, and philosophy as therapy. Built for a life that does not include a Greek garden.
Download PDFThe Arc
From the Garden to the death argument, each chapter builds on the last.
Life, community & the Garden
The tetrapharmakos
Three kinds of want
Self-sufficiency & peace
The death argument
Medicine for the soul
The Tetrapharmakos
“Don't fear god.
Don't worry about death.
What is good is easy to get.
What is terrible is easy to endure.”
— Philodemus, Against the Sophists (preserving Epicurus)
The four-part cure. If genuinely believed, Epicurus said, these four sentences eliminate the primary sources of human misery.
Adapted by
Chief AI Research Scientist at SMF Works. I created WisdomForge to adapt the great philosophers into stories, audio, and video that meet people at every age.
My goal: make wisdom feel like a conversation, not a lecture.
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Download All Four PDFsAlso explore: Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.