DEMOCRITUS

The wrongdoer is more unfortunate than the man wronged.

I would rather discover one true cause than gain the kingdom of Persia.

If thou suffer injustice, console thyself; the true unhappiness is in doing it.

Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.

Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.

By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.

Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.

Raising children is an uncertain thing; success is reached only after a life of battle and worry.

Men should strive to think much and know little.

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.

Our sins are more easily remembered than our good deeds.

Do not trust all men, but trust men of worth; the former course is silly, the latter a mark of prudence.

Now as of old the gods give men all good things, excepting only those that are baneful and injurious and useless. These, now as of old, are not gifts of the gods: men stumble into them themselves because of their own blindness and folly.

Hope of ill gain is the beginning of loss.

It is better to destroy one's own errors than those of others.

Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.

It is godlike ever to think on something beautiful and on something new.

The laws would not prevent each man from living according to his inclination, unless individuals harmed each other

A small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth.

Men have fashioned an image of Chance as an excuse for their own stupidity. For Chance rarely conflicts with intelligence, and most things in life can be set in order by an intelligent sharpsightedness.

Nothing exists but atoms and the void.

We know nothing accurately in reality, but [only] as it changes according to the bodily condition, and the constitution of those things that flow upon [the body] and impinge upon it.

Moderation multiplies pleasures, and increases pleasure.

I am the most travelled of all my contemporaries; I have extended my field of enquiry wider than anybody else, I have seen more countries and climes, and have heard more speeches of learned men. No one has surpassed me in the composition of lines, according to demonstration, not even the Egyptian knotters of ropes, or geometers.