Globed from the atoms falling slow or swift I see the suns, I see the systems lift Their forms; and even the systems and the suns Shall go back slowly to the eternal drift.
LUCRETIUSNature repairs one thing from another and allows nothing to be born without the aid of another’s death.
More Lucretius Quotes
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The wailing of the newborn infant is mingled with the dirge for the dead.
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Tis pleasant to stand on shore and watch others labouring in a stormy sea.
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There can be no centre in infinity.
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Thus it comes That earth, without her seasons of fixed rains, Could bear no produce such as makes us glad, And whatsoever lives, if shut from food, Prolongs its kind and guards its life no more.
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The greatest wealth is to live content with little, for there is never want where the mind is satisfied.
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Forbear to spew out reason from your mind, but rather ponder everything with keen judgment; and if it seems true, own yourself vanquished, but, if it is false, gird up your loins to fight.
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Lucretius, who follows [Epicurus] in denouncing love, sees no harm in sexual intercourse provided it is divorced from passion.
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All things keep on in everlasting motion, Out of the infinite come the particles, Speeding above, below, in endless dance.
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The sum total of all sums total is eternal.
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Deprived of pain, and also deprived of danger, able to do what it wants, [Nature] does not need us, nor understands our deserts, and it cannot be angry.
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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.
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Never trust the calm sea when she shows her false alluring smile.
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All nature, then, as self-sustained, consists Of twain of things: of bodies and of void In which they’re set, and where they’re moved around.
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You alone govern the nature of things. Without you nothing emerges into the light of day, without you nothing is joyous or lovely.
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Out beyond our world there are, elsewhere, other assemblages of matter making other worlds. Ours is not the only one in air’s embrace.
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How many evils has religion caused! [Lat., Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum!]
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You may complete as many generations as you please during your life; none the less will that everlasting death await you.
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By protracting life, we do not deduct one jot from the duration of death.
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We plainly perceive that the mind strengthens and decays with the body.
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What once sprung from the earth sinks back into the earth.
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So potent was religion in persuading to evil deeds.
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Those vestiges of natures left behind Which reason cannot quite expel from us Are still so slight that naught prevents a man From living a life even worthy of the gods.
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Fear holds dominion over mortality Only because, seeing in land and sky So much the cause whereof no wise they know, Men think Divinities are working there.
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Why dost thou not retire like a guest sated with the banquet of life, and with calm mind embrace, thou fool, a rest that knows no care?
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I own with reason: for, if men but knew Some fixed end to ills, they would be strong By some device unconquered to withstand Religions and the menacings of seers.
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From the heart of this fountain of delights wells up some bitter taste to choke them even amid the flowers.
LUCRETIUS