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Who really said it

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not

Written by Epicurus 341–270 BC · Greek philosopher, founder of Epicureanism
Verified In copyright

This is a genuine Epicurean maxim — number 35 of the Vatican Sayings (Sententiae Vaticanae), a collection rediscovered in an 1888 Vatican Library manuscript that preserves the views of Epicurus and his immediate circle. The exact English wording you see is Russel M. Geer’s 1964 translation (Bobbs-Merrill), Vatican Saying XXXV; other translators render the Greek quite differently.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not” — Epicurus, Vatican Saying 35 (trans. Russel M. Geer, 1964)

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Russel M. Geer / Bobbs-Merrill (Library of Liberal Arts)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

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Provenance

The source

Author
Epicurus (341–270 BC)
Work
Vatican Sayings (Sententiae Vaticanae), no. 35
Translation
Russel M. Geer, 1964 (Bobbs-Merrill)
Original
Greek maxim; manuscript rediscovered 1888

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.

Vatican Saying 35 is a standalone aphorism; the surrounding sayings in the collection turn on the same Epicurean theme — contentment with present goods and the taming of restless desire.

Epicurus: Letters, Principal Doctrines, and Vatican Sayings (Geer, 1964)

How we traced it

  • The line is Vatican Saying 35 in the Sententiae Vaticanae ↗, a set of 81 Epicurean aphorisms found in an 1888 Vatican Library manuscript that preserves the views of Epicurus and his immediate followers.
  • The exact English wording is traced to Russel M. Geer’s 1964 Bobbs-Merrill translation ↗, cited as Vatican Saying XXXV, p. 68.
  • Other translators render the same Greek differently — Peter Saint-Andre ↗ gives “Don’t ruin the things you have by wanting what you don’t have…” — showing the familiar phrasing belongs to one translator, not to Epicurus verbatim.
In copyright

The ancient Greek maxim is public domain, but the exact English wording shown is Russel M. Geer’s 1964 translation, first published by Bobbs-Merrill — a post-1930 rendering by an identifiable translator and publisher, so this specific wording is treated as in-copyright. A public-domain phrasing exists in Cyril Bailey’s 1926 Oxford edition, but it reads differently (“…was the gift of fortune”).

Fact-check

The catch: right author, one translator's words

The good news for once: this really is Epicurus. The wrinkle is that the crisp English everyone shares is a single modern translator’s work, and the line is occasionally hung on the wrong ancient name.

Russel M. Geer, 1964 modern translation

The polished sentence — “…remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for” — is Geer’s 1964 rendering ↗, not Epicurus’s literal words. Cyril Bailey (1926) ↗ ended it “…was the gift of fortune,” a meaningfully different reading of the same Greek.

Sometimes miscredited to Seneca occasional mix-up

Because Seneca quotes Epicurus constantly in his Letters to Lucilius, the line is sometimes filed under Seneca. But it does not appear in Seneca’s epistles; it is Vatican Saying 35 ↗, from the Epicurean collection itself.

Cited as if from a treatise or letter

It is a one-line maxim from the Vatican Sayings — a florilegium of aphorisms — not a passage lifted from a formal work or personal letter of Epicurus.

It is Epicurus — Vatican Saying 35 ↗ — but the memorable English is Russel M. Geer’s 1964 translation, one of several quite different renderings of the Greek.

Context

Why it endures

The saying compresses the core of Epicurean ethics into one sentence: our restlessness for what we lack quietly poisons the enjoyment of what we already hold. Epicurus’s remedy is memory — recalling that today’s ordinary possessions were once the very things we longed for.

It has become a staple of modern Stoic-and-Epicurean self-help feeds, usually stripped of any note that it is Vatican Saying 35 or that the English is a mid-20th-century translation.

What you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Gratitude Simplicity

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Vatican Sayings (overview)en.wikipedia.org

Background on the Sententiae Vaticanae, the 1888 manuscript, and its Epicurean authorship.
Epicurusen.wikipedia.org

Life, dates, and philosophy of the author.
Geer translation (1964)archive.org

The Bobbs-Merrill edition whose wording matches the popular quote (Vatican Saying 35).
Vatican Sayings (Saint-Andre trans.)monadnock.net

A different, freely available translation of saying 35 for comparison.
Vatican Sayings e-textepicurism.info

A consensus English text of all the Vatican Sayings, including no. 35.
On Bailey's VS 35 renderingepicureanfriends.com

Discussion showing how Bailey's 1926 translation of the same saying differs.

The author

About Epicurus

Epicurus

341–270 BC · Greek philosopher, founder of Epicureanism

Epicurus (341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, born on Samos, who founded the school of thought known as Epicureanism and taught in his Athens garden. He held that a pleasant, tranquil life comes from moderating desire, dispelling needless fear, and valuing friendship — the very themes behind this saying. Most of his vast output is lost; what survives comes through a few letters, the Principal Doctrines, and the Vatican Sayings.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Epicurus. Letters, Principal Doctrines, and Vatican Sayings. Translated by Russel M. Geer. Vatican Saying 35. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill (Library of Liberal Arts 141), 1964, p. 68.

MLA (9th ed.)

Epicurus. Letters, Principal Doctrines, and Vatican Sayings. Translated by Russel M. Geer, Bobbs-Merrill, 1964, p. 68.

APA (7th ed.)

Epicurus. (1964). Letters, principal doctrines, and Vatican sayings (R. M. Geer, Trans.). Bobbs-Merrill.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/do-not-spoil-what-you-have-by-desiring-what-you-have-not

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