Democritus Quotations

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

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

The wrongdoer is more unfortunate than the man wronged.

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

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

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

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

Men should strive to think much and know little.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Soul and intellect are just the same things.

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

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

All things happen by virtue of necessity.

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

There are many who know many things, yet are lacking in wisdom.

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

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

Envy is the cause of political division.

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

The good things of life are produced by learning with hard work; the bad are reaped of their own accord, without hard work.

The man enslaved to wealth can never be honest.

By convention sweet is sweet, by convention bitter is bitter, by convention hot is hot, by convention cold is cold, by convention colour is colour. 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.

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

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

By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.

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

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.

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

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

Reason is often a more powerful persuader than gold.

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

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 word is the shadow of the deed.

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.

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.

In a shared fish, there are no bones.

Man is a universe in little [ Microcosm ].

Word is a shadow of a deed.

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

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

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

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

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

The brave man is he who overcomes not only his enemies but his pleasures

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Magnanimity consists in enduring tactlessness with mildness.

Moderation multiplies pleasures, and increases pleasure.

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

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.

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.

Many much-learned men have no intelligence.

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

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

The wise man’s home is the universe.

There are some men who are masters of cities but slaves to women.

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

Nothing exists but atoms and the void.

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

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.

One should practice much sense, not much learning.

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

The offender, who repents, is not yet lost.

Hope of ill gain is the beginning of loss.

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

The sweetest things become the most bitter by excess.

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

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

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

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

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

More men have become great through practice than by nature.

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

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

Our sins are more easily remembered than our good deeds.

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.

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

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

Life unexamined, is not worth living.

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

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

Sexual intercourse is a slight attack of apoplexy.