Roman poet & philosopher (c. 99 BC - c. 55. BC)
O goddess, bestow on my words an immortal charm.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
Beauty and strength were, both of them, much esteemed;
Then wealth was discovered and soon after gold
Which quickly became more honoured than strength or beauty.
For men, however strong or beautiful,
Generally follow the train of a richer man.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
The first beginnings of things cannot be distinguished by the eye.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
Nature obliges everything to change about.
One thing crumbles and falls in the weakness of age;
Another grows in its place from a negligible start.
So time alters the whole nature of the world
And earth passes from one state to another.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
For fools admire and love those things they see hidden in verses turned all upside down, and take for truth what sweetly strokes the ears and comes with sound of phrases fine imbued.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
The next step was the use of huts and skins and fire,
And women became the property of one man.
So the chaste pleasures of a private Venus
Were first invented and couples had their own children.
It was then that the human race began to soften.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
And Venus coupled their bodies in the forest;
What brought them together was either that both wanted it,
That the man was violent and his lust was threatening,
Or some such gift as acorns, berries and pears.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
Violence and injury enclose in their net all that do such things, and generally return upon him who began.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
Everyone tries to use the powers that are in him:
And calves will butt before they have grown their horns.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
But if anyone were to conduct his life by reason
He would find great riches in living a peaceful life
And being contented; one is never short of a little
But men want always to be powerful and famous
So that their fortune rests on a solid foundation
And they can spend a placid life in opulence.
There isn't a hope of it; to attain great honours
You have to struggle along a dangerous way
And even when you reach the top there is envy
Which can strike you down like lightning into Tartarus.
For envy, like lightning, generally strikes at the top
Or any point which sticks out from the ordinary level.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
Never trust the calm sea when she shows her false alluring smile.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
Air, I should explain, becomes wind when it is agitated.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
And many kinds of creatures must have died,
Unable to plant out new sprouts of life.
For whatever you see that lives and breathes and thrives
Has been, from the very beginning, guarded, saved
By it's trickery for its swiftness or brute strength.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
First, then, I say, that the mind, which we often call the intellect, in which is placed the conduct and government of life, is not less an integral part of man himself, than the hand, and foot, and eyes, are portions of the whole animal.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
Victory brings us level with Heaven.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
Tempests, and bright lightnings, are to be sung; their nature is to be told, and from what cause they pursue their course; lest, having foolishly divided the heaven into parts, you should be anxious as to the quarter from which the flying flame may come, or to what region it may betake itself; and tremble to think how it penetrates through walled enclosures, and how, having exercised its power, it extricates itself from them. Of which phenomena the multitude can by no means see the causes, and think that they are accomplished by supernatural power.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
Death is nothing to us, it matters not one jot, since the nature of the mind is understood to be mortal.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
It is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
If the matter of death is reduced to sleep and rest, what can there be so bitter in it, that any one should pine in eternal grief for the decease of a friend?
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
From the very fountain of enchantment there arises a taste of bitterness to spread anguish amongst the flowers.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura