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
religious wicked action
Religious questions have often led to wicked and impious actions.
past evil atheism
Too often in time past, religion has brought forth criminal and shameful actions... How many evils has religion caused?
spring order infinite-time
It was certainly not by design that the particles fell into order, they did not work out what they were going to do, but because many of them by many chances struck one another in the course of infinite time and encountered every possible form and movement, that they found at last the disposition they have, and that is how the universe was created.
Nothing can be created out of nothing.
death past leaving
Why shed tears that you must die? For if your past life has been one of enjoyment, and if all your pleasures have not passed through your mind, as through a sieve, and vanished, leaving not a rack behind, why then do you not, like a thankful guest, rise cheerfully from life's feast, and with a quiet mind go take your rest.
return-back heaven earth
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. [Lat., Cedit item retro, de terra quod fuit ante, In terras; et, quod missum est ex aetheris oreis, Id rursum caeli relatum templa receptant.]
atheist ignorant sublime
All religions are equally sublime to the ignorant, useful to the politician, and ridiculous to the philosopher.
inspirational stones dripping
Constant dripping hollows out a stone.
drops falling hole rain violence
The drops of rain make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by often falling
law fixed all-things
All things obey fixed laws.
men leaving darkness
The dreadful fear of hell is to be driven out, which disturbs the life of man and renders it miserable, overcasting all things with the blackness of darkness, and leaving no pure, unalloyed pleasure. [Lat., Et metus ille foras praeceps Acheruntis agundus, Funditis humanam qui vitam turbat ab imo, Omnia suffuscans mortis nigrore, neque ullam Esse voluptatem liquidam puramque relinquit.]
strong way fool
It's easier to avoid the snares of love than to escape once you are in that net whose cords and knots are strong; but even so, enmeshed, entangled, you can still get out unless, poor fool, you stand in your own way.
strong law lifetime
Under what law each thing was created, and how necessary it is for it to continue under this, and how it cannot annul the strong rules that govern its lifetime.
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.]