Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
Genuine
Yes. In Vatican Sayings (270 BC), Vatican Sayings 35 (Gnomologium Vaticanum, Vat. gr. 1950); Greek as in Bailey, Epicurus: The Extant Remains (1926), p. 110; English, Peter Saint-Andre (2010, CC0).
Checked against Cyril Bailey (ed.), Epicurus: The Extant Remains (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926), V. Fragments, A. Vatican Collection, no. XXXV (the Greek); English in Peter Saint-Andre’s translation of the Vatican Sayings (Monadnock Valley Press, 2010), dedicated to the public domain (CC0), p. 110 (Greek), on a page scan.
The wording people share comes from a later translation.
- Work
- Vatican Sayings (Ἐπικούρου Προσφώνησις (Gnomologium Vaticanum)), 270 BC
- Where
- Vatican Sayings 35 (Gnomologium Vaticanum, Vat. gr. 1950); Greek as in Bailey, Epicurus: The Extant Remains (1926), p. 110; English, Peter Saint-Andre (2010, CC0)
- Translation
- None in our sources
- Source
- Cyril Bailey (ed.), Epicurus: The Extant Remains (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926), V. Fragments, A. Vatican Collection, no. XXXV (the Greek); English in Peter Saint-Andre’s translation of the Vatican Sayings (Monadnock Valley Press, 2010), dedicated to the public domain (CC0), p. 110 (Greek)
- Checked
- On a page scan
Researched by AI. Entry updated 23 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
About this quote
The scene
A single saying in the collection headed ‘Epicurus’ Exhortation’ in a fourteenth-century Vatican manuscript, first printed in 1888. It has no surrounding argument: the neighbouring sayings are on friendship (34, that it is not so much our friends’ help that helps us as the confidence of their help) and on Epicurus’ own gentle and self-sufficient life (36, a saying about him, not by him). The thought belongs with his teaching that natural desires are few and easy to satisfy, while empty desires have no limit.
What it means
Longing for what we lack spoils the good we already have; we should remember that what we have now was once something we wished for.
Also shared as
- ShortenedDo not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not. The first half alone, as it is often shared. Where it was seen
Topics
Related quotes
- Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life. Epictetus
- Nature’s wealth at once has its bounds and is easy to procure; but the wealth of vain fancies recedes to an infinite distance.
- The just man enjoys the greatest peace of mind, while the unjust is full of the utmost disquietude.
- Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened. (not found) Dr. Seuss
- We are troubled more often by opinion than by fact. Seneca the Younger
Sources
- archive.org/details/EpicurusTheExtantRemainsBaileyOxford1926_201309 (Bailey, 1926: pp. 110-111, page images)
- monadnock.net/epicurus/vatican-sayings.html (Saint-Andre, 2010, CC0: the English used here, no. 35)
- goodreads.com/author/quotes/114041.Epicurus (what circulates: the popular wording, the most liked Epicurus quote there, 2,906 likes on 23 October 2026)
Cite it
Epicurus, Vatican Sayings (270 BC), Vatican Sayings 35 (Gnomologium Vaticanum, Vat. gr. 1950); Greek as in Bailey, Epicurus: The Extant Remains (1926), p. 110; English, Peter Saint-Andre (2010, CC0). Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/do-not-spoil-what-you-have-by-desiring-what-you-have-not/ (23 October 2026).
Have a different wording, or a source we missed? Check it or submit it.
Do you hold the rights to anything on this page? Tell us.
Checked by people
People who checked this entry against its source, under their own names. Their checks do not change the verdict: an editor reviews every entry.
Comments