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Mentioned in the frugal hedonism book, Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher of hedonism, which holds that pleasure and happiness are good in and of themselves. By hedonism he didn’t mean what the word connotes today: indulging in unhealthy desires all the time at our own expense and others’. Rather, Epicurus advocated simple pleasures: food, friendship, and contemplation. He understood well what Buddhism does too, that most of our desires result in unhappiness.
I love that while Plato had his Academy and Aristotle his Lyceum—schools where they would teach others their philosophy—Epicurus built a garden to prove his point by showing rather than telling.