Democritus

Democritus (c. 460 BC - c. 370 BC) was a Greek philosopher, considered a great thinker, was born in Abdera, Thrace, of wealthy parents, is best known for his atomic theory, though he was also known as a geometre. Very little is known about him. He has been called the Laughing Philosopher, it is said, from his habit of laughing at the follies of mankind. He spent his patrimony in travel, gathered knowledge from far and near, and gave the fruits of it in a series of writings to his contemporary compatriots, only fragments of which remain, though they must have come down comparatively entire to Marcus Tullius Cicero's time (100 BC - 43 BC), who compares them for splendour and music of eloquence to Plato's.

His philosophy was called the Atomic, as he traced the universe to its ultimate roots in combinations of atoms, in quality the same but in quantity different, and referred all life and sensation to movements in them, while he regarded quiescence as the summum bonum.

Wisdom & Quotes

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

- Fragment

• Everything existing in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity.

--Fragments

• Verily we know nothing. Truth is buried deep.

-Attributed by Diogenes Laërtius in Lives of Eminent Philosophers

• The first principles of the universe are atoms and empty space; everything else is merely thought to exist.

- quoted by Diogenes Laërtius in Democritus

• Good breeding in cattle depends on physical health, but in men on a well-formed character.
• Education is an ornament for the prosperous, a refuge for the unfortunate.
• We know nothing accurately in reality, but as it changes according to the bodily condition, and the constitution of those things that flow upon and impinge upon it.
• Medicine heals diseases of the body, wisdom frees the soul from passions.
• Man is a universe in little.
• Many much-learned men have no intelligence.
• Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.
• There are many who know many things, yet are lacking in wisdom.

- traditionally attributed

• It is hard to fight desire; but to control it is the sign of a reasonable man.
• Rather discover one cause than gain the kingdom of Persia.
• 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.
• Beautiful objects are wrought by study through effort, but ugly things are reaped automatically without toil.
• The animal needing something knows how much it needs, the man does not.
• The man who is fortunate in his choice of son-in-law gains a son; the man unfortunate in his choice loses his daughter also.
• No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge.
• Strength and beauty are the blessings of youth; temperance, however, is the flower of old age.
• There are two forms of knowledge, one genuine, one obscure. To the obscure belong all of the following: sight, hearing, smell, taste, feeling. The other form is the genuine, and is quite distinct from this. ...Whenever the obscure has reached the minimum sensibile of hearing, smell, taste, and touch, and when the investigation must be carried farther into that which is still finer, then arises the genuine way of knowing, which has a finer organ of thought.
• Of practical wisdom these are the three fruits: to deliberate well, to speak to the point, to do what is right.
• The friendship of one wise man is better than the friendship of a host of fools.

Aristophanes