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.
goddess charm immortal
O goddess, bestow on my words an immortal charm.
calm-mind care guests
Why dost thou not retire like a guest sated with the banquet of life, and with calm mind embrace, thou fool, a rest that knows no care?
world states whole-world
Time changes the nature of the whole world; Everything passes from one state to another And nothing stays like itself.
centaurs body speak
But centaurs never existed; there could never be So to speak a double nature in a single body Or a double body composed of incongruous parts With a consequent disparity in the faculties. The stupidest person ought to be convinced of that.
passion harm divorced
Lucretius, who follows [Epicurus] in denouncing love, sees no harm in sexual intercourse provided it is divorced from passion.
suicide pain insanity
Lucretius was passionate, and much more in need of exhortations to prudence than Epicurus was. He committed suicide, and appears to have suffered from periodic insanity - brought on, so some averred, by the pains of love or the unintended effects of a love philtre.
earth firsts
Fear was the first thing on Earth to create gods.
rocks erosion growth
And part of the soil is called to wash away In storms and streams shave close and gnaw the rocks. Besides, whatever the earth feeds and grows Is restored to earth. And since she surely is The womb of all things and their common grave, Earth must dwindle, you see and take on growth again.
sea land wind
It is pleasurable, when winds disturb the waves of a great sea, to gaze out from land upon the great trials of another.
science men air
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.
doe admire mankind
There is nothing that exists so great or marvelous that over time mankind does not admire it less and less.
earth sprung
What once sprung from the earth sinks back into the earth.
moon men sky
If atom stocks are inexhaustible, Greater than power of living things to count, If Nature's same creative power were present too To throw the atoms into unions - exactly as united now, Why then confess you must That other worlds exist in other regions of the sky, And different tribes of men, kinds of wild beasts.