He was known in antiquity as the ‘laughing philosopher’ because of his emphasis on the value of ‘cheerfulness.’ He believed that matter is made up from atoms and elaborated a system originated by his teacher Leucippus into a materialist account of the natural world. The atomists held that there are smallest indivisible bodies from which everything else is composed, and that these move about in an infinite void space.
Of the ancient materialist accounts of the natural world which did not rely on some kind of teleology or purpose to account for the apparent order and regularity found in the world, atomism was the most influential.
(460 BC – 370 BC)
– Democritus Quotes –
Our sins are more easily remembered than our good deeds.
~ Democritus
Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.
~ Democritus
It is greed to do all the talking but not to want to listen at all.
~ Democritus
Raising children is an uncertain thing; success is reached only after a life of battle and worry.
~ Democritus
Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.
~ Democritus
Do not trust all men, but trust men of worth; the former course is silly, the latter a mark of prudence.
~ Democritus
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.
~ Democritus
By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.
~ Democritus
Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.
~ Democritus
I would rather discover one true cause than gain the kingdom of Persia.
~ Democritus
Hope of ill gain is the beginning of loss.
~ Democritus
Men should strive to think much and know little.
~ Democritus
It is better to destroy one’s own errors than those of others.
~ Democritus
It is godlike ever to think on something beautiful and on something new.
~ Democritus
