Democritus Quotes

Greek philosopher (c. 460–c. 370 BC)

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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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He who does wrong is more unhappy than he who suffers wrong.

Repentance for one's evil deeds is the safeguard of life.

Not from fear but from a sense of duty refrain from your sins.

'Tis not in strength of body nor in gold that men find happiness, but in uprightness and in fulness of understanding.

'Tis well to restrain the wicked, and in any case not to join him in his wrong-doing.

If one choose the goods of the soul, he chooses the diviner [portion]; if the goods of the body, the merely mortal.

If any one hearken with understanding to these sayings of mine many a deed worthy of a good man shall he perform and many a foolish deed be spared.

He who intends to enjoy life should not be busy about many things, and in what he does should not undertake what exceeds his natural capacity. On the contrary, he should have himself so in hand that even when fortune comes his way, and is apparently ready to lead him on to higher things, he should put her aside and not o'erreach his powers. For a being of moderate size is safer than one that bulks too big.

Of practical wisdom these are the three fruits: to deliberate well, to speak to the point, to do what is right.

[Democritus says:] By convention sweet is sweet, by convention bitter is bitter, by convention hot is hot, by convention cold is cold, by convention color is color. But in reality there are atoms and the void. That is, the objects of sense are supposed to be real and it is customary to regard them as such, but in truth they are not. Only the atoms and the void are real.

There are two forms of knowledge, one genuine, one obscure. To the obscure belong all of the following: sight, hearing, smell, taste, feeling. The other form is the genuine, and is quite distinct from this. [And then distinguishing the genuine from the obscure, he continues:] Whenever the obscure [way of knowing] has reached the minimum sensibile of hearing, smell, taste, and touch, and when the investigation must be carried farther into that which is still finer, then arises the genuine way of knowing, which has a finer organ of thought.

In fact we do not know anything infallibly, but only that which changes according to the condition of our body and of the [influences] that reach and impinge upon it.

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.)

Now, that we do not really know of what sort each thing is, or is not, has often been shown.

And yet it will be obvious that it is difficult to really know of what sort each thing is.