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The core philosophy we know Epicurus to have believed in was that one should pursue simple pleasures in life. Friendship was also key to forming happiness.<ref>For more on the foundations of Epicurus' philosophy, see: Bales, Eugene F. 2008. Philosophy in the West: Men, Women, Religion, Science. Philadelphia, Pa.: Xlibris, pg. 68.</ref> While his falling out with other philosophers may seem a slight contradiction in his beliefs of seeking friendship and pleasure, he did try to live up to his ideals. This is demonstrated when he claimed to a friend in a letter, as he was dying, that his state of mind was very happy despite the pain he felt from kidney stones. So, even if physically one cannot escape pain, mentally one can pursue happiness such that it becomes a state not bound by death or sickness. His ideas, therefore, differ greatly from modern understanding of hedonism, which is often associated with the pursuit of please at all costs. While many focus on his ideas of pleasure, it is also his scientific ideas that, along with those of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers, have greatly influenced our modern world.
During the lifetime of Epicurus, he had relatively few followers and they would meet at his house's garden. In fact, the garden in his house becomes the name in which they associated their school. However, evidence of his enduring philosophy in the centuries that followed are evident, as when the Apostle Paul went to Athens he encountered followers of Epicureanism, demonstrating the success of the philosophy as it began to spreaddevelop.<ref>For more on how Epicureanism developed during and after Epicurus, see: O’Keefe, Tim. 2010. Epicureanism. He was one Ancient Philosophies 7. Berkeley: University of the first philosophers California Press.</ref> Nevertheless, because later thought began to clearly state that good confound Epicureanism with hedonism and bad actions do not derive from the godsother philosophies of pleasure seeking, but these derive from the presence or absence many of pain Epicurus' ideas were frowned upon and sufferingbecame less acceptable. It was only in the Renaissance that his ideas once again blossomed.
[[File:Px-Epikouros BM 1843.jpg|thumbnail|Figure 1. Bust of Epicurus.]]
