August 19, 2026

Neither Hope Nor Despair

We must remember that the future is neither ours, nor yet wholly not ours, so that we may not altogether expect it as sure to come, nor despair of it as certain not to come.

Epicurus wrote this letter to his student Menoeceus as a short guide to living well, meant to be studied daily like a practice rather than read once. Writing from his community in Athens known as the Garden, he pushes back against both blind fatalism and popular fear of the gods and fortune. Here he names a specific mental habit: swinging between assuming good things are guaranteed and assuming they are already lost. The line still speaks to anyone starting a day with an outcome they cannot yet know, urging steadiness instead of a rush toward hope or dread.