Nearly 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety, a greater proportion of the population than anywhere else in the world. The next most anxious nation is Colombia, and they have something to really worry about. In 2004 Americans spent $2.1 billion on anti-anxiety drugs, and if my experience is anything to go by, the cure is …
I received this question from a subscriber. I will not mention his name: What advice would Epicurus give to someone who cannot supply themselves with necessary goods? In other words, if you can’t fulfill necessary desires can you still be happy? And, if so, how? The subscriber does not specify necessary goods, but I take …
There is a school photograph of Alan Turing, the famous mathematician, along with the other boys in his term. There, along with Turing, is my own father, aged, I think, 13. I have been reflecting on both men. One, my father, was desperate to be successful and even famous. The other was shy and reclusive, …
“Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more, talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours”. A Swedish proverb, but could have been written by Epicurus. In ancient Greek, of course.
At least 12 people are dead and another 38 wounded, one three months old, and at the hands of a young American gunman. It is not, police say, a terrorist attack, by which they mean it wasn’t committed by a Moslem (I would call it a terrorist attack, but the media have trained us to …
