The greatest objectives in life are happiness, peace of mind and tranquility (ataraxia in Greek), and freedom from fear and anxiety.

Modern philosophy has become incomprehensible to the general public. We invested in a course on philosophy put out by the Teaching Company. It addressed none of the problems we all encounter today. It was full of jargon with little explanation and nothing was put into historical context. I concluded that I was lucky not to be a student faced with a compulsory course in philosophy, conducted by somebody incapable of getting a simple point across.

On the other hand, Epicureanism (hardly mentioned by the professional philosopher who delivered the lectures) relates directly to what we all need – a way of living our lives richly, tranquilly, with the minimum of anxiety. Philosophers seem to be missing the point of it all.