Democritus Quotes

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.

He [Democritus] is probably best known for two of the most scientifically intuitive quotes ever uttered by an ancient: 'Nothing exists except atoms and space, everything else is opinion'.

Strange indeed would it be if all the space around us be empty, mere waste void, and the inhabitants of Earth the only forms in which intelligence could clothe itself.

The mind of man has perplexed itself with many hard questions. Is space infinite, and in what sense? Is the material world infinite in extent, and are all places within that extent equally full of matter? Do atoms exist or is matter infinitely divisible?

The majority of the world is empty space. Empty space, empty space, empty space. All that we see in the world, the life, the animals, plants, people - it's all empty space. That's amazing!

Science regards man as an aggregation of atoms temporarily united by a mysterious force called the life-principle. To the materialist, the only difference between a living and a dead body is that in the one case that force is active, in the other latent.

If all of this, all the life of a stream of water, can be nothing but a pile of atoms, how much more is possible?

Democritus's work on the void was revolutionary.

Atoms are mainly empty space. Matter is composed chiefly of nothing.

If we are merely matter intricately assembled, is this really demeaning? If there's nothing here but atoms, does that make us less or does that make matter more?

By convention sweet is sweet, by convention bitter is bitter, by convention hot is hot, by convention cold is cold, by convention color is color. But in reality there are atoms and the void. That is, the objects of sense are supposed to be real and it is customary to regard them as such, but in truth they are not. Only the atoms and the void are real.

He's not human; he's an empty space disguised as a human.

Internal and external nature, mind and matter, are in time and space, and are bound by the law of causation.

Space has no "existence." "To exist" literally means "to stand out." You cannot understand space because it doesn't stand out. Although in itself it has no existence, it enables everything else to exist. Silence has no existence either, nor does the unmanifested.

Leave a space and something will fill it.

If it weren't for her, there would never have been an empty space, or the need to fill it.

It is not how much empty space there is, but rather how it is used. It is not how much information there is, but rather how effectively it is arranged.

Your nearness is the nearness of planets. I am the void between you. If I withdraw there will be no void for you to swim in.

There is nothing in the universe but matter.

The whole arrangement of my picture is expressive. The place occupied by the figures or objects, the empty spaces around them, the proportions, everything plays a part.

When we sense something, it is due to the movement of atoms in space. When I see the moon it is because "moon atoms" penetrate my eye.

One must state it plainly. Religion comes from the period of human pre-history where nobody - not even the mighty Democritus who concluded that all matter was made from atoms - had the smallest idea what was going on.

I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage.