Epicurus understood something psychologists would later confirm: we feel losses far more intensely than equivalent gains—a phenomenon called loss aversion. What makes his observation piercing is that he recognized this doesn't merely happen *after* we've grown accustomed to wealth; the torment begins the moment we recognize what we might lose, making the wealthy oddly more anxious than those who never possessed abundance in the first place. Consider the modern investor who made millions during a bull market and now refreshes his portfolio obsessively, heart racing at each dip—he suffers more acutely from a 10% loss than he ever enjoyed the original gains. This is why Epicurus, despite his reputation for hedonism, actually counseled modest living: fewer possessions meant fewer vulnerabilities to the asymmetrical sting of loss.