Quotes from Lucretius

Rest, brother, rest. Have you done ill or well Rest, rest, There is no God, no gods who dwell Crowned with avenging righteousness on high Nor frowning ministers of their hate in hell.

Not they who reject the gods are profane, but those who accept them.

To ask for power is forcing uphill a stone which after all rolls back again from the summit and seeks in headlong haste the levels of the plain.

True piety lies rather in the power to contemplate the universe with a quiet mind.

It is great wealth to a soul to live frugally with a contented mind.

What is food to one man is bitter poison to others.

Only religion can lead to such evil.

Fear is the mother of all gods.

Such evil deeds could religion prompt.

Human life lay foul before men's eyes, crushed to the dust beneath religion's weight.

How many evils have flowed from religion.

From the very fountain of enchantment there arises a taste of bitterness to spread anguish amongst the flowers.

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.

To none is life given in freehold; to all on lease.

Life is one long struggle in the dark.

We plainly perceive that the mind strengthens and decays with the body.

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?

Some species increase, others diminish, and in a short space the generations of living creatures are changed and, like runners, pass on the torch of life.

Sweet it is, when on the high seas the winds are lashing the waters, to gaze from the land on another's struggles.

The fall of dropping water wears away the Stone.

In the midst of the fountain of wit there arises something bitter, which stings in the very flowers.

Though the dungeon, the scourge, and the executioner be absent, the guilty mind can apply the goad and scorch with blows.

Too often in time past, religion has brought forth criminal and shameful actions... How many evils has religion caused?

All life is a struggle in the dark.