# What Is The Goal of Life?“

Epicurus writes that pleasure is the best goal of life. However, there are some scholars who interpret the Epicurean philosophy as saying that a life of tranquility is the best goal in life, and they fail to put the correct emphasis on pleasure. This mistake has great implications for our choices and avoidances.

We see in the Letter to Menoeceus: “This is why we say that pleasure is the beginning and the end of a completely happy life. For we recognize it as the primary and innate good, we honor it in everything we accept or reject, and we achieve it if we judge every good thing be the standard of how that thing affects us. And because this is the primary and inborn good, we do not choose every pleasure. Instead, we pass up many pleasures when we will ganin more of what we need from doing so. And we consider many pains to be better than pleasures, if we experience a greater pleasure for a long time from having endured those pains.”