(341 – 270 BCE) Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher. He is
often cited as a precursor of modern Humanism, but very little
of his teachings have survived except in the recollections of
his later followers, in particular in De Rerum Natura by the
Roman poet Lucretius. This epitaph, based on his philosophy, can
still be seen on many ancient gravestones of the Roman Empire,
and is often used at humanist funerals: I was not; I have been;
I am not; I do not mind. Epicurus acquired a garden in Athens,
where he lived in a community of friends, practising a way of
life based on the teachings of Democritus. Unusually for his
time, he welcomed slaves and women into his group, which lived
as a family of equals. Their outlook was that human life had
come about by natural processes and that people should therefore
live according to nature; this would be easy if people were
content with what was enough. They did not think that the world
was designed by a supernatural power or had a purpose imposed on
it by a deity. Al