Democritus

“Good breeding in cattle depends on physical health, but in men on a well”

“Man is a universe in little [ Microcosm ]. Freeman (1948), p. 150”

“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. Freeman (1948), p. 150”

“Medicine heals diseases of the body, wisdom frees the soul from passions. Freeman (1948), p. 149”

“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. Freeman (1948), p. 142”

“By convention sweet is sweet, bitter is bitter, hot is hot, cold is cold, color is color; but in truth there are only atoms and the void. (trans. Durant 1939), Ch. XVI, §II, p. 353; citing C. Bakewell, Sourcebook in Ancient Philosophy , New York, 1909, "Fragment O" (Diels), p. 60”

“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) Sweet exists by convention, bitter by convention, colour by convention; atoms and Void [alone] exist in reality. (trans. Freeman 1948), p. 92.”

“Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.”

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

“δοκεῖ δὲ αὐτῶι τάδε· ἀρχὰς εἶναι τῶν ὅλων ἀτόμους καὶ κενόν, τὰ δ'ἀλλα πάντα νενομίσθαι [δοξάζεσθαι]. ( Diogenes Laërtius , Democritus , Vol. IX, 44) Now his principal doctrines were these. That atoms and the vacuum were the beginning of the universe; and that everything else existed only in opinion.”