“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.”

The wailing of the newborn infant is mingled with the dirge for the dead.

The first-beginnings of things cannot be distinguished by the eye.

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

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

Fear is the mother of all gods.

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?

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.

There is nothing that exists so great or marvelous that over time mankind does not admire it less and less.

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

Falling drops will at last wear away stone.

Whenever anything changes and quits its proper limits, this change is at once the death of that which was before.

From the heart of this fountain of delights wells up some bitter taste to choke them even amid the flowers.

Mother of Aeneas, pleasure of men and gods.

Our life must once have end; in vain we fly From following Fate; e’en now, e’en now, we die.

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.

Do we not see all humans unaware Of what they want, and always searching everywhere, And changing place, as if to drop the load they bear?

You might not like that Facebook shares your political opinions with Politico, but are you really going to delete all the photos, all the posts, all the connections – the presence you’ve spent years establishing on the world’s dominant social network?

The monsoon is such a dominant part of Indian life that it is hard to overstate its importance.

When I was a girl, the West was still young, and the law of force, of physical force, was dominant.

We live in a calculative world and have a calculative mind, and in such a world, ego dominates.

What a horrible loutish planet this is. the dominant species consists of sadistic morons, faces bearing the hideous lineaments of spiritual famine swollen with stupid hate. Hopeless rubbish.

Within our lifetime, we can remember a time when Islamism wasn’t the dominant form of discourse or the aim should be to minimise the absolutists within any religious community and contain them.

The dominant characteristic of an authentic spiritual life is the gratitude that flows from trust — not only for all the gifts that I receive from God, but gratitude for all the suffering. Because in that purifying experience, suffering has often been the shortest path to intimacy with God.

Identify the dominant philosophy of a society and you can predict its future.