Lucrèce citations

Lucrèce est un poète philosophe latin du Ier siècle av. J.-C. , auteur d'un seul ouvrage en six parties, le De rerum natura , un long poème passionné qui décrit le monde selon les principes d'Épicure.

C’est essentiellement grâce à lui que nous connaissons l'une des plus importantes écoles philosophiques de l'Antiquité, l'épicurisme, car des ouvrages d’Épicure, qui fut beaucoup lu et célébré dans toute l’Antiquité tardive, il ne reste pratiquement rien, sauf trois lettres et quelques sentences.

Si Lucrèce expose fidèlement la doctrine de son maître, il met à la défendre une âpreté nouvelle, une sombre ardeur. « On entend dans son vers les spectres qui s'appellent », dit Victor Hugo. Son tempérament angoissé et passionné est presque à l’opposé de celui du philosophe grec. Il vit dans une époque troublée par les guerres civiles et les proscriptions . De là, les pages sombres du De rerum natura sur la mort, le dégoût de la vie, la peste d’Athènes, de là aussi sa passion anti-religieuse qui s’en prend avec acharnement aux dieux, aux cultes et aux prêtres, passion que l’on ne retrouve pas dans les textes conservés d’Épicure, même si celui-ci critique la superstition et même la religion populaire. Contre les positions du monde clérical, il propose de se soustraire aux craintes induites par la sphère religieuse, à laquelle il oppose la dimension rationnelle.

Ainsi, il explique de façon matérielle les objets et le vivant, qui prennent forme via des combinaisons d'atomes.

Surtout, Lucrèce unit à la science épicurienne, souvent difficile, la douceur et la dimension visionnaire de la poésie. Wikipedia  

✵ 94 av. J.-C. – 55 av. J.-C.   •   Autres noms Lucretius Carus, Titus Carus Lucretius
Lucrèce photo

Œuvres

Lucrèce: 48   citations 0   J'aime

Lucrèce citations célèbres

“Mais rien n'est plus doux que d'occuper solidement les hauts lieux fortifiés par la science des sages, régions sereines d'où l'on peut abaisser ses regards sur les autres hommes, les voir errer de toutes parts, et chercher au hasard le chemin de la vie, rivaliser de génie, se disputer la gloire de la naissance, nuit et jour s'efforcer, par un labeur sans égal, de s'élever au comble des richesses ou de s'emparer du pouvoir. O misérable esprits des hommes, ô cœurs aveugles! Dans quelles ténèbres et dans quels dangers s'écoule ce peu d'instants qu'est la vie! Ne voyez-vous pas ce que crie la nature? Réclame-t-elle autre chose que pour le corps l'absence de douleur, et pour l'esprit un sentiment de bien-être, dépourvu d'inquiétude et de crainte?”

Sed nihil dulcius est, bene quam munita tenere
edita doctrina sapientum templa serena,
despicere unde queas alios passimque videre
errare atque viam palantis quaerere vitae,
certare ingenio, contendere nobilitate,
noctes atque dies niti praestante labore
ad summas emergere opes rerumque potiri.
O miseras hominum mentes, o pectora caeca !
Qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque periclis
degitur hoc aevi quod cumquest ! Nonne videre
nihil aliud sibi naturam latrare, nisi ut qui
corpore seiunctus dolor absit, mente fruatur
iucundo sensu cura semota metuque ?
la
De natura rerum (De la nature)

“Regarde, en effet, quand la lumière du soleil fait pénétrer un faisceau de rayons dans l'obscurité de nos maisons : tu verras une multitude de corpuscules s'entremêler de mille façons à travers le vide dans le faisceau lumineux et, comme soldats d'une guerre éternelle, se livrer combats et batailles, guerroyer par escadrons, sans trêve, et ne cessant fiévreusement de se joindre et de se séparer : tu peux te figurer par là ce qu'est l'agitation sans fin des atomes dans le grand vide, autant toutefois qu'une petite chose peut en représenter une grande et nous guider sur la trace de sa connaissance.

Une autre raison d'observer attentivement les corpuscules qui s'agitent en désordre dans un rayon de soleil, c'est qu'une telle agitation nous révèle les mouvements invisibles auxquels sont entraînés les éléments de la matière. Car souvent tu verras beaucoup de ces poussières, sous l'impulsion sans doute de chocs imperceptibles, changer de direction, rebrousser chemin, tantôt à droite, tantôt à gauche et dans tous les sens. Or, leur mobilité tient évidemment à celle de leurs principes.

Les atomes, en effet, se meuvent les premiers par eux-mêmes ; c'est ensuite au tour des plus petits corps composés : les plus proches des atomes par leur force ; sous leurs chocs invisibles ils s'ébranlent, se mettent en marche et eux-mêmes en viennent à déplacer des corps plus importants. C'est ainsi que part des atomes le mouvement, qui s'élève toujours et parvient peu à peu à nos sens, pour parvenir enfin à la poussière que nous apercevons dans les rayons du soleil, alors même que les chocs qui la mettent en mouvement nous demeurent invisibles.”

De natura rerum (De la nature)

“Il est doux, quand sur la grande mer les vents soulèvent les flots, d'assister de la terre aux rudes épreuves d'autrui : non que la souffrance de personne nous soit un plaisir si grand; mais voir à quels maux on échappe soi-même est chose douce.”

Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis
e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem;
non quia vexari quemquamst iucunda voluptas,
sed quibus ipse malis careas quia cernere suavest.
la
De natura rerum (De la nature)

Lucrèce: Citations en anglais

“For as children tremble and fear everything in the blind darkness, so we in the light sometimes fear what is no more to be feared than the things that children in the dark hold in terror and imagine will come true. This terror, therefore, and darkness of mind must be dispelled not by the rays of the sun and glittering shafts of daylight, but by the aspect and law of nature.”
Nam veluti pueri trepidant atque omnia caecis in tenebris metuunt, sic nos in luce timemus interdum, nilo quae sunt metuenda magis quam quae pueri in tenebris pavitant finguntque futura. hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necessest non radii solis neque lucida tela diei discutiant sed naturae species ratioque.

Book II, lines 55–61 (tr. Rouse)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“All religions are equally sublime to the ignorant, useful to the politician, and ridiculous to the philosopher.”

As quoted in What Great Men Think of Religion (1972 [1945]) by Ira D. Cardiff, p. 245. Actually said by Edward Gibbonː "The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful." (The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776, Vol. I, Ch. II).
Misattributed

“Therefore death is nothing to us, it matters not one jot, since the nature of the mind is understood to be mortal.”
Nil igitur mors est ad nos neque pertinet hilum, quandoquidem natura animi mortalis habetur.

Book III, lines 830–831 (tr. Rouse)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“So clearly will truths kindle light for truths.”
Ita res accendent lumina rebus.

Book I, line 1117 (tr. W. H. D. Rouse and M. F. Smith)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“What once sprung from earth sinks back into the earth.”
Cedit item retro, de terra quod fuit ante, in terras.

Book II, lines 999–1000 (tr. Bailey)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“By protracting life, we do not deduct one jot from the duration of death.”
Nec prorsum vitam ducendo demimus hilum tempore de mortis nec delibare valemus.

Book III, lines 1087–1088 (tr. Rouse)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“Thus the sum of things is ever being renewed, and mortal creatures live dependent one upon another. Some species increase, others diminish, and in a short space the generations of living creatures are changed and, like runners, pass on the torch of life.”
Sic rerum summa novatur semper, et inter se mortales mutua vivunt. augescunt aliae gentes, aliae minuuntur, inque brevi spatio mutantur saecla animantum et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt.

Sic rerum summa novatur
semper, et inter se mortales mutua vivunt.
augescunt aliae gentes, aliae minuuntur,
inque brevi spatio mutantur saecla animantum
et quasi cursores vitae lampada tradunt.
Book II, line 75 (tr. Rouse)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“In the midst of the fountain of wit there arises something bitter, which stings in the very flowers.”
Medio de fonte leporum surgit amari aliquid quod in ipsis floribus angat.

Book IV, lines 1133–1134 (reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations)
Variant translation: From the midst of the fountain of delights rises something bitter that chokes them all amongst the flowers.
Compare: "Still from the fount of joy's delicious springs / Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom flings", Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto I, stanza 82
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“What is food to one, is to others bitter poison.”
Ut quod ali cibus est aliis fuat acre venenum.

Book IV, line 637 (reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations)
Compare: "What's one man's poison, signor, / Is another's meat or drink", Beaumont and Fletcher, Love's Cure (1647), Act III, scene 2
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“Yes, to seek power that's vain and never granted
and for it to suffer hardship and endless pain:
this is to heave and strain to push uphill
a boulder, that still from the very top rolls back
and bounds and bounces down to the bare, broad field.”

Nam petere imperium quod inanest nec datur umquam, atque in eo semper durum sufferre laborem, hoc est adverso nixantem trudere monte saxa quod tamen e summo iam vertice rursum volvitur et plani raptim petit aequora campi.

Nam petere imperium quod inanest nec datur umquam,
atque in eo semper durum sufferre laborem,
hoc est adverso nixantem trudere monte
saxa quod tamen e summo iam vertice rursum
volvitur et plani raptim petit aequora campi.
Book III, lines 998–1002 (tr. Frank O. Copley)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“Why dost thou not retire like a guest sated with the banquet of life, and with calm mind embrace, thou fool, a rest that knows no care?”
Cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis aequo animoque capis securam, stulte, quietem?

Book III, lines 938–939 (tr. Bailey)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“But if one should guide his life by true principles, man's greatest riches is to live on a little with contented mind; for a little is never lacking.”
Quod siquis vera vitam ratione gubernet, divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parvo aequo animo; neque enim est umquam penuria parvi.

Quod siquis vera vitam ratione gubernet,
divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parvo
aequo animo; neque enim est umquam penuria parvi.
Book V, lines 1117–1119 (tr. Rouse)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“Nothing is ever gotten out of nothing by divine power.”
Nullam rem e nihilo gigni divinitus umquam.

Book I, line 150 (tr. Munro)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“Men are eager to tread underfoot what they have once too much feared.”
Nam cupide conculcatur nimis ante metutum.

Book V, line 1140 (tr. Rouse)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“The living force of his soul gained the day: on he passed far beyond the flaming walls of the world and traversed throughout in mind and spirit the immeasurable universe.”
Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit et extra processit longe flammantia moenia mundi atque omne immensum peragravit mente animoque.

Book I, lines 72–74 (tr. H. A. J. Munro); of Epicurus.
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“For every one feels to what purpose he can use his own powers. Before the horns of a calf appear and sprout from his forehead, he butts with them when angry, and pushes passionately.”
Sentit enim vis quisque suas quoad possit abuti. cornua nata prius vitulo quam frontibus extent, illis iratus petit atque infestus inurget.

Book V, lines 1033–1035 (tr. Bailey)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“A thing therefore never returns to nothing.”
Haud igitur redit ad nihilum res ulla.

Book I, line 248 (tr. Munro)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“Cease therefore to be dismayed by the mere novelty and so to reject reason from your mind with loathing: weigh the questions rather with keen judgment and if they seem to you to be true, surrender, or if the thing is false, gird yourself to the encounter.”
Desine qua propter novitate exterritus ipsa expuere ex animo rationem, sed magis acri iudicio perpende, et si tibi vera videntur, dede manus, aut, si falsum est, accingere contra.

Book II, lines 1040–1043 (tr. Munro)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“We are all sprung from a heavenly seed.”
Caelesti sumus omnes semine oriundi.

Book II, line 991 (tr. Munro)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“O pitiable minds of men, O blind intelligences! In what gloom of life, in how great perils is passed all your poor span of time! not to see that all nature barks for is this, that pain be removed away out of the body, and that the mind, kept away from care and fear, enjoy a feeling of delight!”
O miseras hominum mentes, o pectora caeca! qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque periclis degitur hoc aevi quod cumquest! nonne videre nihil aliud sibi naturam latrare, nisi ut qui corpore seiunctus dolor absit, mente fruatur iucundo sensu cura semota metuque?

Book II, lines 14–19 (tr. Rouse)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“So it is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains.”
Quo magis in dubiis hominem spectare periclis convenit adversisque in rebus noscere qui sit; nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo eliciuntur et eripitur persona, manet res.

Book III, lines 55–58 (reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“All things must needs be borne on through the calm void moving at equal rate with unequal weights.”
Omnia qua propter debent per inane quietum aeque ponderibus non aequis concita ferri.

Book II, lines 238–239 (tr. Bailey)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“Again and again our foe, religion, has given birth to deeds sinful and unholy.”
Saepius illa religio peperit scelerosa atque impia facta.

Book I, lines 82–83 (tr. C. Bailey)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“To avoid falling into the toils of love is not so hard as, after you are caught, to get out of the nets you are in and to break through the strong meshes of Venus.”
Vitare, plagas in amoris ne iaciamur, non ita difficile est quam captum retibus ipsis exire et validos Veneris perrumpere nodos.

Book IV, lines 1146–1148 (tr. Munro)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“The first-beginnings of things cannot be seen by the eyes.”
Nequeunt oculis rerum primordia cerni.

Book I, line 268 (tr. Munro)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“But there is nothing sweeter than to dwell in towers that rise
On high, serene and fortified with teachings of the wise,
From which you may peer down upon the others as they stray
This way and that, seeking the path of life, losing their way:
The skirmishing of wits, the scramble for renown, the fight,
Each striving harder than the next, and struggling day and night,
To climb atop a heap of riches and lay claim to might.”

Sed nihil dulcius est, bene quam munita tenere edita doctrina sapientum templa serena, despicere unde queas alios passimque videre errare atque viam palantis quaerere vitae, certare ingenio, contendere nobilitate, noctes atque dies niti praestante labore ad summas emergere opes rerumque potiri.

Book II, lines 7–13 (tr. Stallings)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“And yet it is hard to believe that anything
in nature could stand revealed as solid matter.
The lightning of heaven goes through the walls of houses,
like shouts and speech; iron glows white in fire;
red-hot rocks are shattered by savage steam;
hard gold is softened and melted down by heat;
chilly brass, defeated by heat, turns liquid;
heat seeps through silver, so does piercing cold;
by custom raising the cup, we feel them both
as water is poured in, drop by drop, above.”

Etsi difficiile esse videtur credere quicquam in rebus solido reperiri corpore posse. transit enim fulmen caeli per saepta domorum, clamor ut ad voces; flamen candescit in igni dissiliuntque ferre ferventi saxa vapore. tum labefactatus rigor auri solvitur aestu; tum glacies aeris flamma devicta liquescit; permanat calor argentum penetraleque frigus quando utrumque manu retinentes pocula rite sensimus infuso lympharum rore superne.

Book I, lines 487–496 (Frank O. Copley)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“The steady drip of water causes stone to hollow and yield.”
Stilicidi casus lapidem cavat.

Book I, line 313 (tr. Stallings)
Variant translation: Continual dropping wears away a stone.
Compare: "The soft droppes of rain pierce the hard marble; many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks", John Lyly, Euphues, 1579 (Arber's reprint), p. 81
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“Violence and injury enclose in their net all that do such things, and generally return upon him who began.”
Circumretit enim vis atque iniuria quemque, atque, unde exortast, at eum plerumque revertit.

Book V, lines 1152–1153 (tr. Rouse)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

“A little river seems to him, who has never seen a larger river, a mighty stream; and so with other things—a tree, a man—anything appears greatest to him that never knew a greater.”
Scilicet et fluvius qui visus maximus ei, Qui non ante aliquem majorem vidit; et ingens Arbor, homoque videtur, et omnia de genere omni Maxima quae vidit quisque, haec ingentia fingit.

Scilicet et fluvius qui visus maximus ei,
Qui non ante aliquem majorem vidit; et ingens
Arbor, homoque videtur, et omnia de genere omni
Maxima quae vidit quisque, haec ingentia fingit.

Book VI, lines 674–677 (quoted in The Essays of Michel de Montaigne, tr. W. C. Hazlitt)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

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