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Who really said it

He who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing

Attributed to Epicurus 341–270 BC · Greek philosopher, founder of Epicureanism
Attributed Rights unconfirmed

The thought is genuinely Epicurus’s — it is Vatican Saying 68 (Greek: Ouδέν ἱκανὸν ᾓ ὀλίγον τὸ ἱκανόν), which every standard translation renders as “Nothing is enough to one for whom enough is little.” But this exact English one-liner is a re-worded paraphrase that appears in no standard scholarly translation, and its origin as a rendering cannot be pinned to a confirmed source — so Epicurus is credited, but the precise wording is not verified.

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

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Unconfirmed quote & credit

“He who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing” He who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing. — attributed to Epicurus (a modern paraphrase of Vatican Saying 68)

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We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

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Provenance

The saying behind the paraphrase

Work
Vatican Sayings, no. 68
Author
Epicurus (collection also includes his followers)
Greek
Ouδέν ἱκανὸν ᾓ ὀλίγον τὸ ἱκανόν
Standard translation
“Nothing is enough to one for whom enough is little.”

Nothing is enough to one for whom enough is little.

This is the standard scholarly rendering of Vatican Saying 68 (e.g. Peter Saint-Andre; N. H. Bartman). The popular English form — “He who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing” — says the same thing but flips it into a positive conditional, and matches none of these translations.

Vatican Saying 68 (Greek with translation)

How we traced it

  • Standard translations of Vatican Saying 68 read “Nothing is enough to one for whom enough is little” (Greek Ouδέν ἱκανὸν ᾓ ὀλίγον τὸ ἱκανόν) — not the popular one-liner.
  • Wikiquote lists the popular wording and cites it to Eugene O’Connor’s The Essential Epicurus (1993), p. 99, but the exact wording could not be confirmed against that text.
  • A close reader of Epicurus searched “tirelessly” and could not find any source for this exact sentence, noting only that it echoes Epicurean teaching.

The ancient Greek of Vatican Saying 68 is public domain, but rights attach to the specific English wording displayed here. That wording matches no translation we could identify: it is not the pre-1931 Bailey rendering, nor Saint-Andre, nor a confirmed O’Connor line. As an anonymous modern paraphrase with no verified translator and no evidence of pre-1931 publication, its copyright status cannot be asserted, so we mark it uncertain rather than claim public domain.

Fact-check

Misquote, not misattribution

This is not a case of the wrong author — the idea really is Epicurus’s. It is a case of the wrong words: a smooth modern paraphrase standing in for a saying that scholars translate quite differently.

An anonymous modern paraphrase Re-worded

Every standard translation of Vatican Saying 68 keeps the Greek structure — “Nothing is enough to one for whom enough is little” (Saint-Andre, Bartman, and the Society of Epicurus study guide all agree). The famous one-liner recasts it as a positive conditional found in none of them.

Wikiquote → O’Connor 1993, p. 99 Unverified

Wikiquote pins the exact wording to Eugene O’Connor’s The Essential Epicurus (1993), but the wording could not be confirmed in that text, and a specialist reader could find no source at all.

The substance is authentically Epicurean — it is Vatican Saying 68 — even though this exact English sentence is a modern rephrasing rather than a verified translation.

Context

Why it fits Epicurus

For Epicurus, the route to a happy life was not acquiring more but wanting less. Desires that are neither natural nor necessary — for wealth, status, luxury — are boundless by nature, so chasing them guarantees permanent dissatisfaction. Vatican Saying 68 makes the point sharply: to a person who treats ‘enough’ as too little, no amount will ever be enough.

That is exactly what the popular one-liner captures. Whoever first rephrased it into “He who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing” distilled a real Epicurean idea — which is why the attribution to Epicurus is fair even though the words are not his.

To one who treats ‘enough’ as too little, nothing will ever be enough.

About the Vatican Sayings

The Vatican Sayings are a collection of 81 short Epicurean maxims preserved in a 14th-century Greek manuscript in the Vatican Library and first published in 1888. Some are by Epicurus himself and some by his followers; VS 68 is generally treated as Epicurus’s own.

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Simplicity Gratitude

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

Epicurus — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Lists the popular wording and attributes it to O'Connor's Essential Epicurus (1993), p. 99.
Vatican Sayings (Greek + translation)twentiers.com

Vatican Saying 68 in Greek with N. H. Bartman's English rendering.
Vatican Sayings (Saint-Andre)monadnock.net

Peter Saint-Andre's 2010 translation: VS 68 as 'Nothing is enough to one for whom enough is very little.'
Vatican Sayings — Brief Study Guidesocietyofepicurus.com

Scholarly study guide rendering VS 68 as 'Nothing is enough to someone for whom what is enough is little.'
'He who is not satisfied…' — source huntneologikonblog.wordpress.com

An Epicurus enthusiast documents being unable to locate any source for this exact wording.
Epicurus — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophyplato.stanford.edu

Authoritative scholarly overview of Epicurus's life, texts, and ethics of limiting desire.

The true source

About Epicurus

Epicurus

341–270 BC · Greek philosopher, founder of Epicureanism

Epicurus (341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher who founded Epicureanism and taught in his Athenian “Garden.” He held that pleasure — understood as tranquility (ataraxia) and freedom from bodily pain — is the highest good, best reached by limiting desire to what is natural and necessary. Almost none of his voluminous writing survives; we have a few letters and two collections of maxims, the Principal Doctrines and the Vatican Sayings.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Epicurus. Vatican Saying 68, in The Vatican Sayings. Greek: Ouδέν ἱκανὸν ᾓ ὀλίγον τὸ ἱκανόν; standard translation “Nothing is enough to one for whom enough is little.” The popular English wording is an unattributed modern paraphrase.

MLA (9th ed.)

Epicurus. “Vatican Saying 68.” The Vatican Sayings.

APA (7th ed.)

Epicurus. (n.d.). The Vatican Sayings (Saying 68).

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘He who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/he-who-is-not-satisfied-with-a-little-is-satisfied-with

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