Authors
Topics
Lists
Pictures
Resources
More about Lucretius
Lucretius Quotes
108 Sourced Quotes
Source
Report...
First, then, I say, that the mind, which we often call the intellect, in which is placed the conduct and government of life, is not less an integral part of man himself, than the hand, and foot, and eyes, are portions of the whole animal.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
Lack of power to solve the question troubles the mind with doubts, whether there was ever a birth-time of the world, and whether likewise there is to be any end...
Lucretius
Source
Report...
Thus the sum
Forever is replenished, and we live
As mortals by eternal give and take.
The nations wax, the nations wane away;
In a brief space the generations pass,
And like to runners hand the lamp of life
One unto other.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
Nature impelled men to make sounds with their tongues And they found it useful to give names to things Much for the same reason that we see children now Have recourse to gestures because they cannot speak And point their fingers at things which appear before them.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
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.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
Meantime, when once we know from nothing still
Nothing can be create, we shall divine
More clearly what we seek: those elements
From which alone all things created are,
And how accomplished by no tool of Gods.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
For whenever bodies fall through water and thin air, they must quicken their descents in proportion to their weights, because the body of water and subtle nature of air cannot retard everything in equal degree, but more readily give way [when] overpowered by the heavier.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
Bodies, again,
Are partly primal germs of things, and partly
Unions deriving from the primal germs.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
Perhaps too the sun as he shines aloft with rosy lamp has roundabout him much fire with heats that are not visible, and thus the fire may be marked by no radiance, so that fraught with heat it increases to such a degree the stroke of the rays.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
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.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
Confess then, naught from nothing can become,
Since all must have their seeds, wherefrom to grow,
Wherefrom to reach the gentle fields of air.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
Did men but know that there was a fixed limit to their woes, they would be able, in some measure, to defy the religious fictions and menaces of the poets; but now, since we must fear eternal punishment at death, there is no mode, no means, of resisting them.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
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.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
And so some day, The mighty ramparts of the mighty universe Ringed round with hostile force, Will yield and face decay and come crumbling to ruin.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
All things around, convulsed with violent thunder, seem to tremble, and the mighty walls of the capacious world appear at once to have started and burst asunder.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
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.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
The sum of things there is no power can change,
For naught exists outside, to which can flee
Out of the world matter of any kind,
Nor forth from which a fresh supply can spring,
Break in upon the founded world, and change
Whole nature of things, and turn their motions about.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
That which was in esteem, falls at length into utter disrepute; and then another thing mounts up and issues out of its degraded state and every day is more and more coveted and blossoms forth high in honour when discovered and is in marvellous repute with men.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
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.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
Violence and wrong enclose all who commit them in their meshes and do mostly recoil on him from whom they begin.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
Long time men lay oppress'd with slavish fear Religion's tyranny did domineer... At length a mighty one of Greece began To assert the natural liberty of man, By senseless terrors and vain fancies let To slavery. Straight the conquered phantoms fled.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
Beauty and strength were, both of them, much esteemed; Then wealth was discovered and soon after gold Which quickly became more honoured than strength or beauty. For men, however strong or beautiful, Generally follow the train of a richer man.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
The existing universe is bounded in none of its dimensions; for then it must have an outside.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
Look at a man in the midst of doubt & danger and you will learn in his hour of adversity what he really is.
Lucretius
Source
Report...
For common instinct of our race declares
That body of itself exists: unless
This primal faith, deep-founded, fail us not,
Naught will there be whereunto to appeal
On things occult when seeking aught to prove
By reasonings of mind.
Lucretius
1
2
3
4
5
Quote of the day
Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.
Faith Baldwin
Lucretius
Creative Commons
Died:
55 BC
Bio:
Titus Lucretius Carus was 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.
Known for:
De rerum natura (56 BC)
The Way Things are
Lucretius: De Rerum NaturaBook III
La natura delle cose =
Von der Natur der Dinge
Most used words:
life
mind
earth
death
man
atoms
nature
bitter
flowers
sea
live
universe
fountain
darkness
fear
Lucretius on Wikipedia
Lucretius works on Wikisource
Suggest an edit or a new quote
Lucretius Quotes
Lucretius Short Quotes
Quotes about Lucretius
Italian Philosopher Quotes
Philosopher Quotes
Related People
Epicurus
Greek Philosopher
Cicero
Roman Philosopher
Democritus
Greek Philosopher
Virgil
Roman Poet
Ovid
Roman Poet
Featured Authors
Lists
Predictions that didn't happen
If it's on the Internet it must be true
Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words)
Picture Quotes
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Popular Topics
life
love
nature
time
god
power
human
mind
work
art
heart
thought
men
day
×
Lib Quotes