Lucretius Quotes

The first-beginnings of things cannot be seen by the eyes.

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

Haud igitur redit ad nihilum res ulla.

Scilicet et fluvius qui visus maximus ei, Qui non ante aliquem majorem vidit; et ingens Arbor, homoque videtur, et omnia de genere omni Maxima quae vidit quisque, haec ingentia fingit.

Desine qua propter novitate exterritus ipsa
expuere ex animo rationem, sed magis acri
iudicio perpende, et si tibi vera videntur,
dede manus, aut, si falsum est, accingere contra.

Again and again our foe, religion, has given birth to deeds sinful and unholy.

O miseras hominum mentes, o pectora caeca!
qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque periclis
degitur hoc aevi quod cumquest! nonne videre
nihil aliud sibi naturam latrare, nisi ut qui
corpore seiunctus dolor absit, mente fruatur
iucundo sensu cura semota metuque?

Caelesti sumus omnes semine oriundi.

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

Therefore death is nothing to us, it matters not one jot, since the nature of the mind is understood to be mortal.

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.

Sic volvenda aetas commutat tempora rerum.
Quod fuit in pretio, fit nullo denique honore.

Nay, even suppose when we have suffered fate,
The soul could feel in her divided state,
What's that to us? for we are only we,
While souls and bodies in one frame agree.
Nay, though our atoms should revolve by chance,
And matter leap into the former dance;
Though time our life and motion could restore,
And make our bodies what they were before,
What gain to us would all this bustle bring?
The new-made man would be another thing;
When once an interrupting pause is made,
That individual being is decayed.
We, who are dead and gone, shall bear no part
In all the pleasures, nor shall feel the smart,
Which to that other mortal shall accrue,
Whom of our matter, time shall mould anew.
For backward if you look, on that long space
Of ages past, and view the changing face
Of matter, tossed and variously combined
In sundry shapes, ’tis easy for the mind
From thence t' infer that seeds of things have been
In the same order as they now are seen:
Which yet our dark remembrance cannot trace,
Because a pause of life, a gaping space
Has come betwixt, where memory lies dead,
And all the wandering motions from the sense are fled.

Medio de fonte leporum
surgit amari aliquid quod in ipsis floribus angat.

Vitare, plagas in amoris ne iaciamur,
non ita difficile est quam captum retibus ipsis
exire et validos Veneris perrumpere nodos.