Democritus Quotes

75 quotes in 670 categories

• Men have made an idol of luck as an excuse for their own thoughtlessness.
• Tis hard to fight with anger but the prudent man keeps it under control.
• The pride of youth is in strength and beauty, the pride of old age is in discretion.
• The man who is fortunate in his choice of son-in-law gains a son; the man unfortunate in his choice loses his daughter also.
• By convention sweet is sweet, by convention bitter is bitter, by convention hot is hot, by convention cold is cold, by convention colour is colour.…
• The brave man is he who overcomes not only his enemies but his pleasures
• Envy is the cause of political division.
• The first principles of the universe are atoms and empty space; everything else is merely thought to exist.
• Good breeding in cattle depends on physical health, but in men on a well-formed character.
• Medicine heals diseases of the body, wisdom frees the soul from passions.
• Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.
• The animal needing something knows how much it needs, the man does not.
• Beautiful objects are wrought by study through effort, but ugly things are reaped automatically without toil.
• The brave man is not only he who overcomes the enemy, but he who is stronger than pleasures. Some men are masters of cities, but…
• Sweet exists by convention, bitter by convention, color by convention; but in reality atoms and the void alone exist
• The good things of life are produced by learning with hard work; the bad are reaped of their own accord, without hard work.
• Men find happiness neither by means of the body nor through possessions, but through uprightness and wisdom.
• Magnanimity consists in enduring tactlessness with mildness.
• The man enslaved to wealth can never be honest.
• One should practice much sense, not much learning.

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