Democritus Quotes

30 Sourced Quotes

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

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

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

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

Democritus
Nothing can come into being from that which is not, or pass away into what is not.

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

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

Democritus
[I would] rather discover one cause than gain the kingdom of Persia.

Democritus
Moderation multiplies pleasures, and increases pleasure.

Democritus
The enmity of one's kindred is far more bitter than the enmity of strangers.

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

Democritus
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.

Democritus
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.

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

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

Democritus
[Atoms] have all sorts of shapes and appearances and different sizes... Some are rough, some hook-shaped, some concave, some convex and some have other innumerable variations.

Democritus
By convention are sweet and bitter, hot and cold, by convention is color; in truth are atoms and the void.... In reality we apprehend nothing exactly, but only as it changes according to the condition of our body and the things that impinge on or offer resistance to it.

Democritus
By convention there is color, by convention sweetness, by convention bitterness, but in reality there are atoms and space.

Democritus
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.

Democritus
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.

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

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

Democritus
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.

Democritus
Whatever a poet writes with enthusiasm and a divine inspiration is very fine.

Democritus
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.

Democritus