Democritus

Men have fashioned an image of Chance as an excuse for their own thoughtlessness.

The atoms are infinite in number and infinitely varied in form.

Color exists by convention, sweet by convention, bitter by convention; in reality nothing exists but atoms and the void.

In truth we know nothing, for truth lies in the depths.

It is not out of fear but out of a feeling of what is right that we should abstain from doing wrong.

The cheerful man, who is impelled towards works that are just and lawful, rejoices by day and by night, and is strong and free from care.

The brave man is not only he who overcomes the enemy, but he who is stronger than pleasures.

Accept nothing pleasant unless it is beneficial.

The man enslaved to wealth can never be honest.

The pleasures that give the most joy are the ones that are most rarely felt.

It is unreasonableness not to submit to the necessary conditions of life.

Fools live without enjoying life.

The friendship of one wise man is better than the friendship of all the foolish.

Do not say or do what is base, even when you are alone. Learn to feel shame in your own eyes much more than before others.

The laws would not prevent each man from living according to his inclination, unless individuals harmed each other; for envy creates the beginning of strife.

Poverty under democracy is as much to be preferred to so-called prosperity under an autocracy as freedom is to slavery.

It is hard to be governed by one's inferior.

The soul is the same as the mind, and is composed of the smoothest and roundest atoms.

The world is a stage, life is our entrance: you came, you saw, you left.

All things are the fruit of chance, which is not itself a god but a law of nature without reason.