Top 199 Quotes & Sayings by Lucretius

Pleasant it to behold great encounters of warfare arrayed over the plains, with no part of yours in peril.

Life is one long struggle in the dark.

In the midst of the fountain of wit there arises something bitter, which stings in the very flowers.

The greatest wealth is to live content with little, for there is never want where the mind is satisfied.

Pleasant it is, when over a great sea the winds trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another's great tribulation; not because any man's troubles are a delectable joy, but because to perceive you are free of them yourself is pleasant.

From the heart of the fountain of delight rises a jet of bitterness that tortures us among the very flowers.

The drops of rain make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling.

From the very fountain of enchantment there arises a taste of bitterness to spread anguish amongst the flowers.

Victory puts us on a level with heaven.

Such are the heights of wickedness to which men are driven by religion.

It is great wealth to a soul to live frugally with a contented mind.

Sweet it is, when on the high seas the winds are lashing the waters, to gaze from the land on another's struggles.

So potent was religion in persuading to evil deeds.

What is food to one man is bitter poison to others.

Thus the sum of things is ever being reviewed, and mortals dependent one upon another. Some nations increase, others diminish, and in a short space the generations of living creatures are changed and like runners pass on the torch of life.

The sum of all sums is eternity.

The fall of dropping water wears away the Stone.

Though the dungeon, the scourge, and the executioner be absent, the guilty mind can apply the goad and scorch with blows.

And life is given to none freehold, but it is leasehold for all.

Not they who reject the gods are profane, but those who accept them.

For fools admire and love those things they see hidden in verses turned all upside down, and take for truth what sweetly strokes the ears and comes with sound of phrases fine imbued.

Nothing can be created out of nothing.

Beauty and strength were, both of them, much esteemed; Then wealth was discovered and soon after gold Which quickly became more honoured than strength or beauty. For men, however strong or beautiful, Generally follow the train of a richer man.

Human life lay foul before men's eyes, crushed to the dust beneath religion's weight.

No matter how difficult a task may look.. Persistence and steady action will get you through

What came from the earth returns back to the earth, and the spirit that was sent from heaven, again carried back, is received into the temple of heaven.

Too often in time past, religion has brought forth criminal and shameful actions... How many evils has religion caused?

It's easier to avoid the snares of love than to escape once you are in that net.

You alone govern the nature of things. Without you nothing emerges into the light of day, without you nothing is joyous or lovely.

It was certainly not by design that the particles fell into order, they did not work out what they were going to do, but because many of them by many chances struck one another in the course of infinite time and encountered every possible form and movement, that they found at last the disposition they have, and that is how the universe was created.

So it is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains.

All things keep on in everlasting motion, Out of the infinite come the particles, Speeding above, below, in endless dance.

Poor humanity, to saddle the gods with such a responsibility and throw in a vindictive temper. What griefs they hatch for themselves, what festering sores for us, what tears for our prosperity! This is not piety, this oft-repeated show of bowing a veiled head before a graven image; this bustling to every altar; this kow-towing and prostration on the ground with palms outspread before the shrines of the gods; this deluging of vow on vow. True piety lies rather in the power to contemplate the universe with a quiet mind.

The drops of rain make a hole in the stone not by violence but by oft falling.

Out beyond our world there are, elsewhere, other assemblages of matter making other worlds. Ours is not the only one in air's embrace.

Look at a man in the midst of doubt & danger and you will learn in his hour of adversity what he really is.

Constant dripping hollows out a stone.

Why shed tears that you must die? For if your past life has been one of enjoyment, and if all your pleasures have not passed through your mind, as through a sieve, and vanished, leaving not a rack behind, why then do you not, like a thankful guest, rise cheerfully from life's feast, and with a quiet mind go take your rest.

The body searches for that which has injured the mind with love.

Fear is the mother of all gods ... Nature does all things spontaneously, by herself, without the meddling of the gods.

Even if I knew nothing of the atoms, I would venture to assert on the evidence of the celestial phenomena themselves, supported by many other arguments, that the universe was certainly not created for us by divine power: it is so full of imperfections.

Rest, brother, rest. Have you done ill or well Rest, rest, There is no God, no gods who dwell Crowned with avenging righteousness on high Nor frowning ministers of their hate in hell.

Certainly it was no design of the atoms to place themselves in a particular order, nor did they decide what motions each should have. But atoms were struck with blows in many ways and carried along by their own weight from infinite times up to the present. They have been accustomed to move and to meet in all manner of ways. For this reason, it came to pass that being spread abroad through a vast time and trying every sort of combination and motion, at length those come together that produce great things, like earth and sea and sky and the generation of living creatures.

The dreadful fear of hell is to be driven out, which disturbs the life of man and renders it miserable, overcasting all things with the blackness of darkness, and leaving no pure, unalloyed pleasure.

It is doubtful what fortune to-morrow will bring. [Lat., Posteraque in dubio est fortunam quam vehat aetas.]

Never trust the calm sea when she shows her false alluring smile.

Since you must admit that there is nothing outside the universe, it can have no limit and is accordingly without end or measure. It makes no odds in which part of it you may take your stand; whatever spot anyone may occupy, the universe stretches away from him just the same in all directions without limit.

We notice that the mind grows with the body, and with it decays.

Nature obliges everything to change about. One thing crumbles and falls in the weakness of age; Another grows in its place from a negligible start. So time alters the whole nature of the world And earth passes from one state to another.

The water hollows out the stone, not by force but drop by drop.

If God can do anything he can make a stone so heavy that even he can't lift it. Then there is something God cannot do, he cannot lift the stone. Therefore God does not exist.

Time changes the nature of the whole world; Everything passes from one state to another And nothing stays like itself.

To none is life given in freehold; to all on lease.

The old must always make way for the new, and one thing must be built out of the ruins of another. There is no murky pit of hell awaiting anyone.

For it is unknown what is the real nature of the soul, whether it be born with the bodily frame or be infused at the moment of birth, whether it perishes along with us, when death separates the soul and body, or whether it visits the shades of Pluto and bottomless pits, or enters by divine appointment into other animals.

It's easier to avoid the snares of love than to escape once you are in that net whose cords and knots are strong; but even so, enmeshed, entangled, you can still get out unless, poor fool, you stand in your own way.

Air, I should explain, becomes wind when it is agitated.

Fear was the first thing on Earth to create gods.

Thus the sum Forever is replenished, and we live As mortals by eternal give and take. The nations wax, the nations wane away; In a brief space the generations pass, And like to runners hand the lamp of life One unto other.

Only religion can lead to such evil.