The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.

Although often attributed to Epicurus, this maxim more naturally reflects a later, honor-and-glory moral vocabulary than Epicurus’s own ethical focus. Epicurean ethics prizes tranquility (ataraxia), freedom from fear, and the prudent management of desires; it tends to treat difficulties as things to be minimized through clear thinking and simple living rather than as occasions for “glory.” Read generically, the sentence praises perseverance: the harder the obstacle, the more meaningful the achievement of overcoming it. As an Epicurean sentiment, however, it would sit uneasily, since Epicurus typically measures success by peace of mind and the absence of distress, not by public acclaim or heroic renown.