Democritus Quotes

Greek philosopher (c. 460–c. 370 BC)

Democritus (c. 460 BC – c. 370 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. He is popularly known as "the laughing philosopher" for advocating a cheerful outlook, and for his rhetorical use of irony and ridicule. A pupil of Leucippus, he was an influential pre-Socratic philosopher who formulated an atomic theory of the universe. Of his voluminous writings, only a few fragments of his ethical theory remain, with descriptions by other writers of his atomic theory.

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Native Name: Δημόκριτος

Alternative Names: Democritus of Abdera • Laughing Philosopher • Demokritos

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The hopes of the right-minded may be realized, those of fools are impossible.

Nature and teaching are closely related; for teaching reforms a person, and by reforming remakes his nature.

Beautiful objects are wrought by study through effort, but ugly things are reaped automatically without toil.

Boldness is the beginning of action, but fortune controls how it ends

Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.

Men achieve tranquillity through moderation in pleasure and through the symmetry of life. Want and superfluity are apt to upset them and to cause great perturbations in the soul. The souls that are rent by violent conflicts are neither stable nor tranquil. One should therefore set his mind upon the things that are within his power, and be content with his opportunities, nor let his memory dwell very long on the envied and admired of men, nor idly sit and dream of them. Rather, he should contemplate the lives of those who suffer hardship, and vividly bring to mind their sufferings, so that your own present situation may appear to you important and to be envied, and so that it may no longer be your portion to suffer torture in your soul by your longing for more. For he who admires those who have, and whom other men deem blest of fortune, and who spends all his time idly dreaming of them, will be forced to be always contriving some new device because of his [insatiable] desire, until he ends by doing some desperate deed forbidden by the laws. And therefore one ought not to desire other men's blessings, and one ought not to envy those who have more, but rather, comparing his life with that of those who fare worse, and laying to heart their sufferings, deem himself blest of fortune in that he lives and fares so much better than they. Holding fast to this saying you will pass your life in greater tranquillity and will avert not a few of the plagues of life—envy and jealousy and bitterness of mind.

By convention is sweet, by convention is bitter, by convention hot, by convention colour, but by verity atoms and void

One man means as much to me as a multitude, and a multitude only as much as one man.

False men and shams talk big and do nothing.

To a wise man, the whole earth is open; for the native land of a good soul is the whole earth.

Everything existing in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity.

It is greed to do all the talking but not to want to listen at all.

Fools learn wisdom through misfortune.

Strength of body is nobility in beasts of burden, strength of character is nobility in men.

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.

Democritus Quotes

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