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
mind matter understood
Death is nothing to us, it matters not one jot, since the nature of the mind is understood to be mortal.
matter seeds nothingness
We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing, since things require a seed to start from.
life struggle dark
Life is one long struggle in the dark.
light kindles
Truths kindle light for truths.
rainy-day greatest-wealth mind
The greatest wealth is to live content with little, for there is never want where the mind is satisfied.
believe hands atoms
At this stage you must admit that whatever is seen to be sentient is nevertheless composed of atoms that are insentient. The phenomena open to our observation so not contradict this conclusion or conflict with it. Rather they lead us by the hand and compel us to believe that the animate is born, as I maintain, of the insentient.
heart adversity reality
So it is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains.
men height wickedness
Such are the heights of wickedness to which men are driven by religion.
science past infinite-time
Anything made out of destructible matter Infinite time would have devoured before. But if the atoms that make and replenish the world Have endured through the immense span of the past Their natures are immortal-that is clear. Never can things revert to nothingness!
mother atheist religion
Fear is the mother of all gods.
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.
evil deeds prompts
Such evil deeds could religion prompt.
imperfection atoms venture
Even if I knew nothing of the atoms, I would venture to assert on the evidence of the celestial phenomena themselves, supported by many other arguments, that the universe was certainly not created for us by divine power: it is so full of imperfections.
atheism creation made
One thing is made of another, and nature allows no new creation except at the price of death.