Democritus quotes

Reason is often a more powerful persuader than gold.

Whatever a poet writes with enthusiasm and a divine inspiration is very fine. Earliest reference to the madness or divine inspiration of poets.

There are innumerable worlds of different sizes. In some there is neither sun not moon, in others they are larger than in ours and others have more than one. These worlds are at irregular distances, more in one direction and less in another, and some are flourishing, others declining. Here they come into being, there they die, and they are distroyed by collision with one another. Some of the worlds have no animal or vegetable life nor any water.

You can tell the man who rings true from the man who rings false, not by his deeds alone, but also by his desires.

Men have made an idol of luck as an excuse for their own thoughtlessness.

Hope of ill gain is the beginning of loss.

Sexual intercourse is a slight attack of apoplexy.

Everything existing in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity.

Many much-learned men have no intelligence.

Medicine heals diseases of the body, wisdom frees the soul from passions.

Poverty in a democracy is as much to be preferred to what is called prosperity under despots, as freedom is to slavery.

One should practice much sense, not much learning.

The brave man is not only he who overcomes the enemy, but he who is stronger than pleasures.

By convention sweet is sweet, by convention bitter is bitter, by convention hot is hot, by convention cold is cold, by convention color is color. But in reality there are atoms and the void. That is, the objects of sense are supposed to be real and it is customary to regard them as such, but in truth they are not. Only the atoms and the void are real.

If you would know contentment, let your deeds be few.

Life unexamined, is not worth living.

Nothing exists but atoms and the void.

Word is a shadow of a deed.

It is godlike ever to think on something beautiful and on something new.

According to convention there is a sweet and a bitter, a hot and a cold, and according to convention, there is an order. In truth, there are atoms and a void.

The wise man’s home is the universe.

It is hard to fight desire; but to control it is the sign of a reasonable man.

All things happen by virtue of necessity.

Beautiful objects are wrought by study through effort, but ugly things are reaped automatically without toil.

Men will cease to be fools only when they cease to be men.

More men have become great through practice than by nature.

To a wise man, the whole earth is open; for the native land of a good soul is the whole earth.

Now as of old the gods give men all good things, excepting only those that are baneful and injurious and useless. These, now as of old, are not gifts of the gods: men stumble into them themselves because of their own blindness and folly.

These differences, they say, are three: shape, arrangement, and position; because they hold that what is differs only in contour, inter-contact, inclination.

The laws would not prevent each man from living according to his inclination, unless individuals harmed each other; for envy creates the beginning of strife.

The wrongdoer is more unfortunate than the man wronged.

The pride of youth is in strength and beauty, the pride of old age is in discretion.

Men have fashioned an image of Chance as an excuse for their own stupidity. For Chance rarely conflicts with intelligence, and most things in life can be set in order by an intelligent sharpsightedness.

The wise man belongs to all countries, for the home of a great soul is the whole world.

Disease of the home and of the life comes about in the same way as that of the body.

Man is a universe in little [Microcosm].

I am the most travelled of all my contemporaries; I have extended my field of enquiry wider than anybody else, I have seen more countries and climes, and have heard more speeches of learned men. No one has surpassed me in the composition of lines, according to demonstration, not even the Egyptian knotters of ropes, or geometers.

Magnanimity consists in enduring tactlessness with mildness.

The man enslaved to wealth can never be honest.

Fortune provides a man's table with luxuries, virtue with only a frugal meal.

Moving in space, the atoms originally were individual units, but inevitable they began to collide with each other, and in cases where their shapes were such as to permit them to interlock, they began to form clusters. Water, air, fire, and earth, these are simply different clusters of the changeless atoms.

It is hard to fight against anger: to master it is the mark of a rational man.

The first principles of the universe are atoms and empty space; everything else is merely thought to exist.

Some men are masters of cities, but are enslaved to women.

Our sins are more easily remembered than our good deeds.

The whole Earth is at the hand of the wise man, since the fatherland of an elevated soul is the Universe.

Happiness does not reside in strength or money; it lies in rightness and many-sidedness.

We know nothing accurately in reality, but [only] as it changes according to the bodily condition, and the constitution of those things that flow upon [the body] and impinge upon it.

Good means not [merely] not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.

The brave man is not only he who overcomes the enemy, but he who is stronger than pleasures. Some men are masters of cities, but are enslaved to women.

Nature . . . has buried truth deep in the bottom of the sea.

Envy creates the beginning of strife.

It is greed to do all the talking but not to want to listen at all.

I would rather discover one true cause than gain the kingdom of Persia.

Good breeding in cattle depends on physical health, but in men on a well-formed character.

Men should strive to think much and know little.

Everywhere man blames nature and fate yet his fate is mostly but the echo of his character and passion, his mistakes and his weaknesses.

Coition is a slight attack of apoplexy. For man gushes forth from man, and is separated by being torn apart with a kind of blow.

Men find happiness neither by means of the body nor through possessions, but through uprightness and wisdom.

Moderation multiplies pleasures, and increases pleasure.

The person who can laugh with life has developed deep roots with confidence and faith-faith in oneself, in people and in the world, as contrasted to negative ideas with distrust and discouragement.

Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.

The animal needing something knows how much it needs, the man does not.

Poor mind, from the senses you take your arguments, and then want to defeat them? Your victory is your defeat.

It is better to destroy one's own errors than those of others.

Do not trust all men, but trust men of worth; the former course is silly, the latter a mark of prudence.

Sweet exists by convention, bitter by convention, color by convention; but in reality atoms and the void alone exist

We know nothing in reality; for truth lies in an abyss.

We think there is color, we think there is sweet, we think there is bitter, but in reality there are atoms and a void.

No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge.

Virtue isn't not wronging others but not wishing to wrong others.

Nature and education are somewhat similar. The latter transforms man, and in so doing creates a second nature.

Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.

To speak but little becomes a woman; and she is best adorned who is in plain attire.

The offender, who repents, is not yet lost.

Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.

Education is an ornament for the prosperous, a refuge for the unfortunate.

Soul and intellect are just the same things.

The word is the shadow of the deed.

If thou suffer injustice, console thyself; the true unhappiness is in doing it.

One great difference between a wise man and a fool is, the former only wishes for what he may possibly obtain; the latter desires impossibilities.

Raising children is an uncertain thing; success is reached only after a life of battle and worry.

The man who is fortunate in his choice of son-in-law gains a son; the man unfortunate in his choice loses his daughter also.

In a shared fish, there are no bones.

Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.

The sweetest things become the most bitter by excess.

To a wise and good man the whole earth is his fatherland.

People sometimes rationalize their greed by saying that it is all for the good of their children but this is nothing but an excuse they use to make their despicable actions appear respectable and praiseworthy.

If your desires are not great, a little will seem much to you; for small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth.

Tis hard to fight with anger but the prudent man keeps it under control.

My enemy is not the man who wrongs me, but the man who means to wrong me.