Short Fragments and Testimonia from Uncertain Works 95
Aetius 1.29.5 = Dox.Gr. p. 326 (375 U) [1-110]
Epicurus says that all things [occur] by necessity, by choice, and
by chance.Simplicius Commentary on Aristotle's Physics
198b29 CIAG 9.371.30-372.16 (377* U)[1-111]In cases where everything happened as though it were for the sake of
some goal, these [creatures] were preserved because, although they were
formed by chance, they were formed as suitable compounds; but in other
cases [the creatures] perished and still do perish, as Empedocles refers to
"oxlike creatures with human faces" .... The ancient natural philosophers
who said that material necessity was the cause of things which come to
be seem to hold this opinion, and among later thinkers so do the Epicure-
ans. Their error comes, as Alexander says, from thinking that everything
which comes to be for the sake of some goal comes to be by intention
and calculation and from seeing that things which come about by nature
do not come to be in this way. But this is not so.
Plutarch On Stoic Self-Contradictions 1050bc
(378 U)
[1-112](1050b) ... And yet Epicurus somehow twists about and exercises his
ingenuity (1050c) in contriving to free and liberate voluntary action from
[the necessity of] eternal motion, in order not to leave vice immune
to blame.Aetius 1.29.6 = Dox. Gr. p. 326 (380 U) [1-113]
Epicurus [says that chance is] a cause which is unstable [or: uncertain]
with respect to persons, times, and places.Maximus the Abbott Gnom. 14
(388 U)
[1-114]If god acted in accordance with the prayers of men, all men would
rather quickly be destroyed, since they constantly pray for many sufferings
to befall each other.Ethics
Plutarch Against Colotes 1127a (8 U) [1-115]
And when they write, they write about politics to discourage us from
practicing politics, and write about rhetoric to discourage us from practic-