Lucretius Quotes

Lucretius presents lofty, poetic reflections that feel like a timeless meditation on the universe.

45 quotes

1. Ergo vivida vis pervicet et extra processit longe flamentia moenia mundi atque omne immensum peragravit mente animoque.

2. Possunt ac fieri divino numine rentur.

3. Nequeunt oculis rerum primordia cerni.

4. Stilicidi casus lapidem cavat, uncus aratri.

5. Etsi difficiile esse videtur credere quicquam in rebus solido reperiri corpore posse. transit enim fulmen caeli per saepta domorum, clamor ut ad voces; flamen candescit in igni dissiliuntque ferre ferventi saxa vapore. tum labefactatus rigor auri solvitur aestu; tum glacies aeris flamma devicta liquescit; permanat calor argentum penetraleque frigus quando utrumque manu retinentes pocula rite sensimus infuso lympharum rore superne.

6. Ita res accedent lumina rebus.

7. Suave magni maro turbantibus aequora ventis e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem; non quia vexari quemquamst jucunda voluptas, sed quibus ipse malis careas quia cernere suave est.

8. Omnis cum in tenebris praesertim vita laboret.

9. Sic rerum summa novatur semper, et inter se mortales mutua vivunt. augescunt aliae gentes, aliae inuuntur, inque brevi spatio mutantur saecla animantum et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradiunt.

10. Dum taxat, rerum magnarum parva potest res exemplare dare et vestigia notitiai.

11. Omnia qua propter debent per inane quietum aeque ponderibus non aequis concita ferri.

12. Infidi maris insidis virisque dolumque ut vitare velint, neve ullo tempore credant subdola cum ridet placidi pellacia ponti.

13. Cedit item retro, de terra quod fuit ante, in terras.

14. Quo magis in dubiis hominem spectare periclis convenit adversisque in rebus noscere qui sit; nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo eliciuntur et eripitur persona, manet res.

15. Nam veluti pueri trepidant atque omnia caecis in tenebris metuunt, sic nos in luce timemus interdum, nilo quae sunt metuenda magis quam quae pueri in tenebris pavitant finguntque futura. hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necessest non radii solis neque lucida tela diei discutiant sed naturae species ratioque.

16. Nil igitur mors est ad nos neque pertinet hilum, quandoquidem natura animi mortalis habetur.

17. Cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis aequo animoque capis securam, stulte, quietem?

18. Nam petere imperium quod inanus nec datur umquam, atque in eo semper durum sufferre laborem, hoc est adverso nixantem trudere monte saxa quod tamen e summo iam vertice rursum volvitur et plani raptim petit aequora campi.

19. Nec prorsum vitam ducendo demimus hilum tempore de mortis nec delibare valemus.

20. Ut quod ali cibus est aliis fuat acre venenum.

21. Nequiquam, quoniam medio de fonte leporum surgit amari aliquit quod in ipsis floribus angat.

22. Quod siquis vera vitam ratione gubernet, divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parvo aequo animo; neque enim est umquam penuria parvi.

23. Nam cupide conculcatur nimis ante metutum.

24. Circumretit enim vis atque iniuria quemque, atque, unde exortast, at eum plerumque revertit.

25. All religions are equally sublime to the ignorant, useful to the politician, and ridiculous to the philosopher. -- Quoted by Ira D Cardiff, What Great Men Think of Religion (1972 [c1945], p. 245), quoted from James A Haught, 2000 Years of Disbelief (see: Talk:Seneca_the_Younger)

26. [N]ature repairs one thing from another and allows nothing to be born without the aid of another's death.

27. “Nature repairs one thing from another and allows nothing to be born without the aid of another's death.”

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

29. 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.

30. See with what force yon river's crystal stream Resists the weight of many a massy beam. To sink the wood the more we vainly toil, The higher it rebounds, with swift recoil. Yet that the beam would of itself ascend No man will rashly venture to contend. Thus too the flame has weight, though highly rare, Nor mounts but when compelled by heavier air.

31. It is a pleasure for to sit at ease Upon the land, and safely for to see How other folks are tossed on the seas That with the blustering winds turmoiled be.

32. Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.

33. We plainly perceive that the mind strengthens and decays with the body.

34. For piety lies not in being often seen turning a veiled head to stones, nor in approaching every altar, nor in lying prostratebefore the temples of the gods, nor in sprinkling altars with the blood of beastsbut rather in being able to look upon all things with a mind at peace.

35. No single thing abides; but all things flow. Fragment to fragment clings - the things thus grow Until we know them and name them. By degrees They melt, and are no more the things we know.

36. What came from the earth returns back to the earth, and the spirit that was sent from heaven, again carried back, is received into the temple of heaven.

37. For thee the wonder-working earth puts forth sweet flowers.

38. To ask for power is forcing uphill a stone which after all rolls back again from the summit and seeks in headlong haste the levels of the plain.

39. Certainly it was no design of the atoms to place themselves in a particular order, nor did they decide what motions each should have. But atoms were struck with blows in many ways and carried along by their own weight from infinite times up to the present. They have been accustomed to move and to meet in all manner of ways. For this reason, it came to pass that being spread abroad through a vast time and trying every sort of combination and motion, at length those come together that produce great things, like earth and sea and sky and the generation of living creatures.

40. How many evils has religion caused! [Lat., Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum!]

41. How is it that the sky feeds the stars?

42. If anyone decided to call the sea Neptune, and corn Ceres, and to misapply the name of Bacchus rather than to give liquor its right name, so be it; and let him dub the round world "Mother of the Gods" so long as he is careful not really to infest his mind with base superstitions.

43. And since the mind is of a man one part, Which in one fixed place remains, like ears, And eyes, and every sense which pilots life; And just as hand, or eye, or nose, apart, Severed from us, can neither feel nor be, But in the least of time is left to rot, Thus mind alone can never be, without The body and the man himself, which seems, As 'twere the vessel of the same- or aught Whate'er thou'lt feign as yet more closely joined: Since body cleaves to mind by surest bonds.

44. It's easier to avoid the snares of love than to escape once you are in that net.

45. Since you must admit that there is nothing outside the universe, it can have no limit and is accordingly without end or measure. It makes no odds in which part of it you may take your stand; whatever spot anyone may occupy, the universe stretches away from him just the same in all directions without limit.