Last Updated: 2024-09-17
A1.45 (Diogenes Laertius): "He says that the end is euthymia, which is not the same as pleasure, as some people mistakenly interpret it, but a state in which the soul lives calmly and stably, disturbed by no fear or superstition or any other passion."
A4: "The Abderites also teach that there is an end [telos]. Democritus in his book 'On the End' says that it is euthymia, which he also calls euesto. He often adds, 'For enjoyment and lack of enjoyment is the boundary [horos].'" [PSA: other words for these states include harmonia, summetria, ataraxia, athaumastia, and eudaimonia.]
A78: "We should not overlook the view of Democritus, who calling the daimons apparitions [eidola], says the air is full of them."
A166: "Democritus, son of Damasippus, of Abdera, said the world was boundless and lay above the void. He also said there was one end of all actions, the most powerful, and it was contentment [euthumia], and pains accounted for what was evil. And what seemed just was not just, and the unjust what was contrary to nature. He said laws were a bad invention and the wise man [σοφός] should not obey laws but live free [ἐλευθερίως ζῆν]."
B2: "According to Democritus Athena Tritogeneia stands for wisdom [φρόνησις]. These three things come from wisdom: to counsel well, to speak unerringly, and to do one's duty."
B4: "The school of Abdera also teaches that there is an end of action. Democritus says in his treatise On the End it is contentment [εὐθυμία], which he also called well-being [εὐεστω]. And he often adds, For joy and sorrow are the measures <of what is beneficial and harmful, which end lies before the life of men both young> and mature ... Nausiphanes [said the end is] being unsurprised. For he said this was called undisturbedness [ἀθαμβίη] by Democritus."
B6: "According to this standard [κανόν] man must know that he is cut off from reality."
B7: "This explanation too shows that in reality we know nothing about anything, but for everyone believing is an influx [ἐπιρυσμίη]."
B8: "And it it will be clear that there is no way to know how each thing is in reality."
B9: "In reality we understand nothing securely, but we perceive what changes in relation to the disposition of the bodfy as things enter or resist."
B10: "That in reality we do not now understand what the nature of each thing is or is not, has been made evident in many ways."
B31: "Medicine, according to Democritus, heals illnesses of the body, wisdom [σοφίη] removes passions from the soul."
B33: "Nature and teaching are close, for teaching reshapes [metarusmoi] the person, and in reshaping makes their nature [phusiopoiei]."
B34: "Just as in the world we obseve some beings ruling [archonta] only, such as the divine, some both ruling and being ruled, such as humans ... and some being ruled only, such as the irrational creatures, these same relationships are observed in man as a microcosm according to Democritus. Some powers rule only, for instance, the reason [logos]; some both are ruled and rule, as the temper [thumos] ... some are ruled only, such as the desire [epithumia]."
B37: "The person who chooses the goods of the soul chooses what is more divine; one who chooses those of the body chooses what is human."
B40: "People are happy not because of their bodies or possessions, but because of rightness [orthosune] and breadth of understanding [poluphrosune]."
B44: "One must say, not many things, but true things."
B45: "The wrongdoer is less happy than the person wronged."
B59: "Neither skill nor wisdom is attainable, unless you learn."
B64: "Many polymaths lack understanding [νόος]."
B65: "One must practice, not learning much, but thinking much."
B69: "For all people the good and the true are the same; but the pleasant is different for different people."
B74: "Accept no pleasure unless it is advantageous." [PSA: presumably, advantageous to the soul.]
B83: "The cause of going wrong [ἀμαρτίης] is ignorance of the better."
B112: "It is a sign of a godlike mind to always be thinking something noble [καλόν]."
B119: "People fashioned an image of chance as an excuse for their own lack of counsel [aboulie]. For chance seldom fights with practical wisdom, and intelligent sharp-sightedness sets straight most things in life."
B125: "For by convention, he says, sweet, by convention bitter, by convention hot, by convention cold, by convention color, but in reality atoms and void."
B137: "By convention sweet, by convention bitter, by convention hot, by convention cold, by convention color, but in reality atoms and void, says Democritus.... [T]he whole point of that remark would be this: white and black, sweet and bitter, and everything like that are considered to be something real by men, but in truth everything is composed of thing [δέν] and not-thing [μηδέν]. For in fact he himself has said this, calling atoms thing [δέν] and the voice not-thing [μηδέν]."
B159: "If the body were to sue the soul for its pains and sufferings all life lnog, then if he were on the jury he would gladly convict the soul of having ruined some parts of the body by carelessness or dissipated them by drunkenness, and of having destroyed and rendered others by it susceptibility to pleasures. It is just like one's ready blame of the user of a tool or utensil in bad condition."
B166: "Democritus says certain apparitions [eidola] draw near to men, and of these some are beneficial and some harmful. Hence he prayed to receive propitious apparitions...."
B169: "Don't seek to know all things, lest you be ignorant of all."
B171: "Happiness does not dwell in flocks or gold; it is the soul which is the home of a person's daimon." Arius Didymus goes on to say that "He also calls it euthymia, euesto, harmonia, summetria and ataraxia. He says that it consists in distinguishing and discriminating [diorismou kai diakriseos] pleasures, and that this is the finest [kalliston] and most advantageous thing for humans."
B187: "It is fitting for people to make more account of the soul than the body; for perfection of the soul rights badness of the body, but strength of the body without reasoning makes the soul not a bit better."
B188: "The boundary [horos] of what is advantageous and disadvantageous is enjoyment and lack of enjoyment [terpsis kai aterpie]."
B189: "It is best for people to live their life with as much cheer and as little pain as possible. This would happen if they would not get their pleasures from mortal things."
B207: "One should choose not every pleasure, but pleasure at what is fine [kalos]."
B211: "Moderation [sophrosune] increases what is enjoyable [ta terpna] and makes pleasure greater."
B214: [courage is shown not only on the battlefield but also in resisting desires]
B223: "What the body requires can easily be got by everybody without effort and misery; the things that require effort and misery and make one's life painful are desired not by the body but by the understanding's mistaking."
B226: "Frankness [παρρησίη] is inherent to freedom, but the danger [κίνδυνος] is in discerning the right moment [καιρός]."
B233: "If you were to overshoot the mean, the most enjoyable things would become most unpleasant."
B235: "For people who get their pleasures from the belly, overshooting the appropriate point in eating or drinking or sex, the pleasures are brief and short-lasting, just for the time they are eating or drinking, while the pains are many. For they always have the desire for the same things; whenever they get what they desire, the pleasure quickly goes and there is nothing good in them but a brief joy. And then they need the same things again."
B244: "Neither say nor do anything base, even if you are alone. Learn to feel shame before yourself far more than before others."
B246: "Traveling teaches self-sufficiency [αὐτάρκεια], for barley bread and straw are the sweetest cures for hunger and fatigue."
B247: "The whole earth is open to the wise man; for the noble soul has the whole world as its native land."
B264: "Feel no more shame before other people than before yourself. Don't do a wrong thing any more if nobody will know than if every single person will know. Most of all feel shame before yourself, and set this up as a law for your soul, so as to do nothing inappropriate."