"You can tell the man who rings true from the man who rings false, not by his deeds alone, but also by his desires."
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Quote collection
Democritus quotes (page 2 of 5)
91 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"It is better to destroy one's own errors than those of others."
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"Many much-learned men have no intelligence."
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"The sweetest things become the most bitter by excess."
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"Good means not [merely] not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong."
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"The animal needing something knows how much it needs, the man does not."
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"Moving in space, the atoms originally were individual units, but inevitable they began to collide with each other, and in cases where their shapes were such as to permit them to interlock, they began to form clusters. Water, air, fire, and earth, these are simply different clusters of the changeless atoms."
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"It is hard to fight desire; but to control it is the sign of a reasonable man."
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"Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains."
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"Raising children is an uncertain thing; success is reached only after a life of battle and worry."
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"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."
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"Poverty in a democracy is as much to be preferred to what is called prosperity under despots, as freedom is to slavery."
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"The wrongdoer is more unfortunate than the man wronged."
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"Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man."
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"Some men are masters of cities, but are enslaved to women."
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"We think there is color, we think there is sweet, we think there is bitter, but in reality there are atoms and a void."
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"Men should strive to think much and know little."
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"It is godlike ever to think on something beautiful and on something new."
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"The brave man is not only he who overcomes the enemy, but he who is stronger than pleasures."
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"The man enslaved to wealth can never be honest."
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