Lucretius
Lucretius
Titus Lucretius Caruswas a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the epic philosophical poem De rerum natura about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which is usually translated into English as On the Nature of Things...
NationalityRoman
ProfessionPoet
fortune morrow doubtful
It is doubtful what fortune to-morrow will bring. [Lat., Posteraque in dubio est fortunam quam vehat aetas.]
men giving doubt
For out of doubt In these affairs 'tis each man's will itself That gives the start, and hence throughout our limbs Incipient motions are diffused.
doubt void wander
For there is a VOID in things; a truth which it will be useful for you, in reference to many points, to know; and which will prevent you from wandering in doubt.
adversity men doubt
Look at a man in the midst of doubt & danger and you will learn in his hour of adversity what he really is.
forever doubt body
But yet creation's neither crammed nor blocked About by body: there's in things a void- Which to have known will serve thee many a turn, Nor will not leave thee wandering in doubt, Forever searching in the sum of all, And losing faith in these pronouncements mine.
believe simple doubt
No fact is so simple that it is not harder to believe than to doubt at the first presentation. Equally, there is nothing so mighty or so marvelous that the wonder it evokes does not tend to diminish in time.
bitter food
What is food to one is to another bitter poison.
stones doe heavy
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.
food man
What is food to one man is bitter poison to others.
lying mind atheism
True piety lies rather in the power to contemplate the universe with a quiet mind.
light wind white
The gods and their tranquil abodes appear, which no winds disturb, nor clouds bedew with showers, nor does the white snow, hardened by frost, annoy them; the heaven, always pure, is without clouds, and smiles with pleasant light diffused. [Lat., Apparet divom numen, sedesque quietae; Quas neque concutiunt ventei, nec nubila nimbeis. Aspergunt, neque nex acri concreta pruina Cana cadens violat; semper sine nubibus aether Integer, et large diffuso lumine ridet.]
law fixed all-things
All things obey fixed laws.
men understanding mind
How wretched are the minds of men, and how blind their understandings. [Lat., O miseras hominum menteis! oh, pectora caeca!]
infinite endless everlasting
All things keep on in everlasting motion, Out of the infinite come the particles, Speeding above, below, in endless dance.