“hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necessestnon radii solis neque lucida tela dieidiscutiant, sed naturae species ratioque.(1.146ff.)Therefore it is necessary that neither the rays of the sun nor the shining spears of Day should shatter this terror and darkness of the mind, but the aspect and reason of nature...”

“this terror then and drakness of mind must be dispelled not by the rays of the sun and glittering shafts of day, but by the aspect and the law of nature; the warp whose design we shall begin with this first principle, nothing is ever gotten out of nothing by divine power.”

“...nothing is more blissful than to occupy the heights effectively fortified by the teaching of the wise, tranquil sanctuaries from which you can look down upon others and see them wandering everywhere in their random search for the way of life, competing for intellectual eminence, disputing about rank, and striving night and day with prodigious effort to scale the summit of wealth and to secure power. O minds of mortals, blighted by your blindness! Amid what deep darkness and daunting dangers life’s little day is passed! To think that you should fail to see that nature importantly demands only that the body may be rid of pain, and that the mind, divorced from anxiety and fear, may enjoy a feeling of contentment!”

“E tenebris tantis tam clarum extollere lumenqui primus potuisti inlustrans commoda vitae,te sequor, o Graiae gentis decus, inque tuis nuncficta pedum pono pressis vestigia signis,non ita certandi cupidus quam propter amoremquod te imitari aveo; quid enim contendat hirundocycnis, aut quid nam tremulis facere artubus haediconsimile in cursu possint et fortis equi vis?tu, pater, es rerum inventor, tu patria nobissuppeditas praecepta, tuisque ex, inclute, chartis,floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant,omnia nos itidem depascimur aurea dicta,aurea, perpetua semper dignissima vita.nam simul ac ratio tua coepit vociferarinaturam rerum divina mente coortadiffugiunt animi terrores, moenia mundidiscedunt. totum video per inane geri res.apparet divum numen sedesque quietae,quas neque concutiunt venti nec nubila nimbisaspergunt neque nix acri concreta pruinacana cadens violat semper[que] innubilus aetherintegit et large diffuso lumine ridet:omnia suppeditat porro natura neque ullares animi pacem delibat tempore in ullo.”

“Furthermore, as the body suffers the horrors of disease and the pangs of pain, so we see the mind stabbed with anguish, grief and fear. What more natural than that it should likewise have a share in death?”

“Visible objects therefore do not perish utterly, since nature repairs one thing from another and allows nothing to be born without the aid of another's death.”

“fear in sooth holds so in check all mortals, becasue thay see many operations go on in earth and heaven, the causes of which they can in no way understand, believing them therefore to be done by power divine. for these reasons when we shall have seen that nothing can be produced from nothing, we shall then more correctly ascertain that which we are seeking, both the elements out of which every thing can be produced and the manner in which every thing can be produced in which all things are done without the hands of the gods.”