Lucretius

It is great wealth to a soul to live frugally with a contented mind.

The greatest wealth is to live content with little, for there is never want where the mind is satisfied.

The drops of rain make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling.

Life is one long struggle in the dark.

And life is given to none freehold, but it is leasehold for all.

Thus the sum of things is ever being reviewed, and mortals dependent one upon another. Some nations increase, others diminish, and in a short space the generations of living creatures are changed and like runners pass on the torch of life.

In the midst of the fountain of wit there arises something bitter, which stings in the very flowers.

Pleasant it is, when over a great sea the winds trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another's great tribulation; not because any man's troubles are a delectable joy, but because to perceive you are free of them yourself is pleasant.

From the heart of the fountain of delight rises a jet of bitterness that tortures us among the very flowers.