Democritus Quotes

I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.

A wise man’s country is the world.

It is much easier to make good men wise, than to make bad men good.

All good men are international. Nearly all bad men are cosmopolitan. If we are to be international we must be national.

To a wise man, the whole earth is open; for the native land of a good soul is the whole earth.

My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman... because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French.

A good man, though he will value his own countrymen, yet will think as highly of the worthy men of every nation under the sun.

We can be wise from goodness and good from wisdom.

So it is the human condition that to wish for the greatness of one's fatherland is to wish evil to one's neighbors. The citizen of the universe would be the man who wishes his country never to be either greater or smaller, richer or poorer.

Without goodness a man cannot endure adversity for long, nor can he enjoy prosperity for long. The good man is naturally at ease with goodness. The wise man cultivates goodness for its advantage.

Thus, I blush to add, you can not be a philosopher and a good man, though you may be a philosopher and a great one.

Do the wise thing and the kind thing too, and make the best of us and not the worst.

It is goodness that gives to a neighborhood its beauty. One who is free to choose, yet does not prefer to dwell among the good - how can he be accorded the name of wise?

Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live.

Philosophy is fundamentally about how you come to terms with living your life and trying to do it in a wise manner, and, for me, that means decently and compassionately and courageously and so forth.

It is possible that a wise and good man may be prevailed on to game; but it is impossi∣ble that a professed gamester should be a wise and good man.

Nature will not forgive those who fail to fulfill the law of their being. The law of human beings is wisdom and goodness, not unlimited acquisition.

I never considered myself a patriot. I like to think I recognize only humanity as my nation.

Spare me the political events and power struggles, as the whole earth is my homeland and all men are my fellow countrymen.

Most important is be a good man.

None But such as are good men can give good things, And that which is not good, is not delicious To a well-govern'd and wise appetite.

To reduce man to the duties of his own city, and to disengage him from duties to the members of other cities, is to break the universal society of the human race.

Being in humaneness is good. If we select other goodness and thus are far apart from humaneness, how can we be the wise?

This is my country, that is your country; these are the conceptions of narrow souls - to the liberal minded the whole world is a family.