Democritus
Democritus (greek: Δημόκριτος)(ca. 460 - ca. 370 BCE) was an ancient Greek philosopher, the most prolific and influential of the pre-Socratics and whose atomic theory is regarded as the intellectual culmination of early Greek thought. For this atomic theory, which echoes eerily the theoretical formulations of modern physicists, he is sometimes called the "father of modern science." He was well known to Aristotle, and a thorn in the side to Plato - who advised that all of Democritus' works be burned.
A cheerful and popular man with the citizenry for his uncanny ability to predict events, his was known among his fans as the "Laughing Philosopher," a title that may well have referred more to his scoffing rejection of assigning to gods the mechanistic operations of nature itself. His cosmology and atomic theory held that the world was spheroid, that there were many worlds and many suns, and that all things manifest in nature were comprised of atoms bound together. There are varying accounts of his age at death, ranging from a ripe 90 all the way to 109 years.
“Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.”
“No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge.”
“It is greed to do all the talking but not to want to listen at all.”
“One will seem to promote virtue better by using encouragement and persuasion of speech than law and necessity. For it is likely that he who is held back from wrongdoing by law will err in secret but that he who is urged to what he should by persuasion will do nothing wrong either in secret or openly. Therefore he who acts rightly from understanding and knowledge proves to be at the same time courageous and right-minded.”
“Men achieve cheerfulness by moderation in pleasure and by proportion in their life excess and deficiency are apt to fluctuate and cause great changes in the soul. And souls which change over great intervals are neither stable nor cheerful. So one should set one's mind on what is possible and be content with what one has taking little account of those who are admired and envied and not dwelling on them in thought but one should consider the lives of those who are in distress thinking of their grievous sufferings so that what one has and possesses will seem great and enviable and one will cease to suffer in one's soul through the desire for more.”
“To a wise and good man the whole earth is his fatherland.”
“Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.”
“If your desires are not great, a little will seem much to you; for small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth.”
“Do not trust all men, but trust men of worth; the former course is silly, the latter a mark of prudence.”
“Many much-learned men have no intelligence.”
“Everywhere man blames nature and fate yet his fate is mostly but the echo of his character and passion, his mistakes and his weaknesses.”
“No one regards the things before his feet, But views with care the regions of the sky.”
“By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.”
“Everything existing in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity.”