An open library of thought
Understanding nature to free the mind from fear.
Everything that exists is either body or empty space; bodies are compounds of indivisible, eternal particles, so that nothing arises from nothing and nothing is annihilated.
A ring worn on the finger thins over the years and falling drops hollow a stone: bodies lose particles too small to be seen.
At no fixed time or place, atoms deviate by the smallest amount from their downward fall; this makes collisions possible and breaks the chain of fate that would leave no room for free will.
Without a swerve, atoms would fall through the void like parallel raindrops and never meet to form a world.
Mind and spirit are made of fine atoms that disperse when the body dies; since no subject remains to feel anything, death cannot be an evil for the one who has died.
We felt no distress when Carthage fought Rome before we were born; the time after our death will be no different.
Lucretius defends his use of verse as a way of making a harsh and unfamiliar doctrine attractive, much as physicians sweeten a bitter medicine for children.
Physicians smear honey on the rim of a cup so that a child drinks bitter wormwood and is cured.