Democritus Quotes
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Now as of old the gods give men all good things, excepting only those that are baneful and injurious and useless. These, now as of old, are not gifts of the gods: men stumble into them themselves because of their own blindness and folly.
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If one choose the goods of the soul, he chooses the diviner portion; if the goods of the body, the merely mortal.
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The wrongdoer is more unfortunate than the man wronged.
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Of all things the worst to teach the young is dalliance, for it is this that is the parent of those pleasures from which wickedness springs.
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Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.
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Men should strive to think much and know little.
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If thou suffer injustice, console thyself; the true unhappiness is in doing it.
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Good breeding in cattle depends on physical health, but in men on a well-formed character.
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Those who have a well-ordered character lead also a well-ordered life.
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By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.
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The animal needing something knows how much it needs, the man does not.
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δοκεῖ δὲ αὐτῶι τάδε· ἀρχὰς εἶναι τῶν ὅλων ἀτόμους καὶ κενόν, τὰ δ'ἀλλα πάντα νενομίσθαι δοξάζεσθαι. (Diogenes Laërtius, Democritus, Vol. IX, 44)
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The pleasures that give most joy are the ones that most rarely come.
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Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.
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It is greed to do all the talking but not to want to listen at all.
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Making money is not without its value, but nothing is baser than to make it by wrong-doing.
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Raising children is an uncertain thing; success is reached only after a life of battle and worry.
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Seek after the good, and with much toil shall ye find it; the evil turns up of itself without your seeking it.
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This argument too shows that in truth we know nothing about anything, but every man shares the generally prevailing opinion.
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Coition is a slight attack of apoplexy. For man gushes forth from man, and is separated by being torn apart with a kind of blow.
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'Tis a grievous thing to be subject to an inferior.
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No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge.
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Verily we know nothing. Truth is buried deep. (Another translation: 'Of truth we know nothing, for truth is in a well.' Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers R.D. Hicks, Ed.)
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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 are enslaved to women.