Lucretius

Caelesti sumus omnes semine oriundi.

Vitaque mancipio, nulli datur, omnibus usu.

Quae bene cognita si teneas, natura videtur
Libera continuo, dominis privata superbis,
ipsa sua per se sponte omnia dis agere expers.

Yes, to seek power that's vain and never granted
and for it to suffer hardship and endless pain:
this is to heave and strain to push uphill
a boulder, that still from the very top rolls back
and bounds and bounces down to the bare, broad field.

Nil posse creari de nihilo.

Dum taxat, rerum magnarum parva potest res
exemplare dare et vestigia notitiae.

Etsi difficiile esse videtur credere quicquam
in rebus solido reperiri corpore posse.
transit enim fulmen caeli per saepta domorum,
clamor ut ad voces; flamen candescit in igni
dissiliuntque ferre ferventi saxa vapore.
tum labefactatus rigor auri solvitur aestu;
tum glacies aeris flamma devicta liquescit;
permanat calor argentum penetraleque frigus
quando utrumque manu retinentes pocula rite
sensimus infuso lympharum rore superne.

Men are eager to tread underfoot what they have once too much feared.

Ita res accendent lumina rebus.

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

Cedit item retro, de terra quod fuit ante,
in terras.

But if one should guide his life by true principles, man's greatest riches is to live on a little with contented mind; for a little is never lacking.

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?

Violence and injury enclose in their net all that do such things, and generally return upon him who began.

Pleasant it is, when over a great sea the winds trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another's great tribulation: not because any man's troubles are a delectable joy, but because to perceive from what ills you are free yourself is pleasant.