“In the third section, you proceed to turn us into modest and peace-loving Epicureans.”

“Give me a little peace.A little? Why so modest? How about eternal peace? Now, there's a thought.”

“In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth. For nothing is more precious than the life force and may the love of that force guide you as you go.”

“Give us what belongs to us in peace, and if you don't give it to us in peace, we will take it by force.”

“Four years of Jimmy Carter gave us two titanic Reagan landslides, peace and prosperity for eight blessed years - and even a third term for his feckless vice president, George H.W. Bush.”

“As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.[Letter to William Short, 31 October 1819]”