"[Democritus says:] By convention sweet is sweet, by convention bitter is bitter, by convention hot is hot, by convention cold is cold, by convention color is color. But in reality there are atoms and the void. That is, the objects of sense are supposed to be real and it is customary to regard them as such, but in truth they are not. Only the atoms and the void are real."

"Repentance for one's evil deeds is the safeguard of life."

"Seek after the good, and with much toil shall ye find it; the evil turns up of itself without your seeking it."

"For a man petticoat government is the limit of insolence."

"In the weightiest matters we must go to school to the animals, and learn spinning and weaving from the spider, building from the swallow, singing from the birds,—from the swan and the nightingale, imitating their art."

"An evil and foolish and intemperate and irreligious life should not be called a bad life, but rather, dying long drawn out."

"The right-minded man, ever inclined to righteous and lawful deeds, is joyous day and night, and strong, and free from care. But if a man take no heed of the right, and leave undone the things he ought to do, then will the recollection of no one of all his transgressions bring him any joy, but only anxiety and self-reproaching."

"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."

"False men and shams talk big and do nothing."

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

"Men achieve tranquillity through moderation in pleasure and through the symmetry of life. Want and superfluity are apt to upset them and to cause great perturbations in the soul. The souls that are rent by violent conflicts are neither stable nor tranquil. One should therefore set his mind upon the things that are within his power, and be content with his opportunities, nor let his memory dwell very long on the envied and admired of men, nor idly sit and dream of them. Rather, he should contemplate the lives of those who suffer hardship, and vividly bring to mind their sufferings, so that your own present situation may appear to you important and to be envied, and so that it may no longer be your portion to suffer torture in your soul by your longing for more. For he who admires those who have, and whom other men deem blest of fortune, and who spends all his time idly dreaming of them, will be forced to be always contriving some new device because of his [insatiable] desire, until he ends by doing some desperate deed forbidden by the laws. And therefore one ought not to desire other men's blessings, and one ought not to envy those who have more, but rather, comparing his life with that of those who fare worse, and laying to heart their sufferings, deem himself blest of fortune in that he lives and fares so much better than they. Holding fast to this saying you will pass your life in greater tranquillity and will avert not a few of the plagues of life—envy and jealousy and bitterness of mind."

"All who delight in the pleasures of the belly, exceeding all measure in eating and drinking and love, find that the pleasures are brief and last but a short while—only so long as they are eating and drinking—but the pains that come after are many and endure. The longing for the same things keeps ever returning, and whenever the objects of one's desire are realized forthwith the pleasure vanishes, and one has no further use for them. The pleasure is brief, and once more the need for the same things returns."

"If your desires are not great, a little will seem much to you; for small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth."

"One thing of course was a fundamental necessity to the atomic world-view. There must be empty space for the atoms to move about in. The hallmark of Democritus’s thought, as Aristotle noted approvingly, was a determination to account for apparent fact and not be led astray by abstract argument. Hence he said that Parmenides’s denial of the existence of void could not be upheld. It was contrary to common sense. Aware however that he was flying in the face of that great authority, he made his denial with a kind of schoolboy daring, for according to Aristotle he put it in the form: ‘What is not does exist, no less than what is.’ If material atoms were the only real substance, then empty space was not real in the same sense. Dimly aware that there must be some way out, the atomists did not yet command a language capable of such a phrase as ‘not in the same sense’, and paradox was their only resource."

"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."

"Disease of the home and of the life comes about in the same way as that of the body."

"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."

"It is hard to fight desire; but to control it is the sign of a reasonable man."

"To a wise man, the whole earth is open; for the native land of a good soul is the whole earth."

"No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge."

"The animal needing something knows how much it needs, the man does not."

"Beautiful objects are wrought by study through effort, but ugly things are reaped automatically without toil."

"Moderation multiplies pleasures, and increases pleasure."

"In a shared fish, there are no bones."

"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."

"Education is an ornament for the prosperous, a refuge for the unfortunate."

"The brave man is not only he who overcomes the enemy, but he who is stronger than pleasures. Some men are masters of cities, but are enslaved to women."

"Strength and beauty are the blessings of youth; temperance, however, is the flower of old age."

"Good breeding in cattle depends on physical health, but in men on a well-formed character."

"Man is a universe in little [Microcosm]."

"Πολλοὶ πολυμαθέες νοῦν οὐκ ἔχουσιν."

"Medicine heals diseases of the body, wisdom frees the soul from passions."

"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."

"Coition is a slight attack of apoplexy. For man gushes forth from man, and is separated by being torn apart with a kind of blow."

"Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man."

"My enemy is not the man who wrongs me, but the man who means to wrong me."

"δοκεῖ δὲ αὐτῶι τάδε· ἀρχὰς εἶναι τῶν ὅλων ἀτόμους καὶ κενόν, τὰ δ'ἀλλα πάντα νενομίσθαι [δοξάζεσθαι]. (Diogenes Laërtius, Democritus, Vol. IX, 44)"

"[I would] rather discover one cause than gain the kingdom of Persia."

"νόμωι (γάρ φησι) γλυκὺ καὶ νόμωι πικρόν, νόμωι θερμόν, νόμωι ψυχρόν, νόμωι χροιή, ἐτεῆι δὲ ἄτομα καὶ κενόν (Tetralogies of Thrasyllus, 9; Sext. Emp. adv. math. VII 135)"

"Man should know from this rule that he is cut off from truth."

"You, Socrates, began by saying that virtue can't be taught, and now you are insisting on the opposite, trying to show that all things are knowledge, justice, soundness of mind, even courage, from which it would follow that virtue most certainly can be taught."

"When they [the Athenians] meet for a consultation on civic art, where they should be guided throughout by justice and good sense, they naturally allow advice from everybody, since it is held that everyone should partake of this excellence, or else that states cannot be."