PHILOSOPHY IN ITS INFANCY 2
Parmenides’ pupil Melissus put into plain prose the ideas which Parmenides had expounded in opaque verse. From these ideas he drew out two particular shocking consequences. One was that pain was unreal, because it implied a deficiency of being. The other was that there was no such thing as an empty space or vacuum: it would have to be a piece of Unbeing.
巴门尼德的学生麦里梭用平白的散文阐述了巴门尼德在晦涩的诗歌中表达的思想。从这些思想中，他推导出了两个特别令人震惊的后果。第一，痛苦是不真实的，因为它意味着存在的缺乏。第二，没有空间或真空这样的东西：它必须是非存在的一部分。
Hence, motion was impossible, because the bodies which occupy space have no room to move into. Zeno, a friend of Parmenides some twenty-five years his junior, developed an ingenious series of paradoxes designed to show beyond doubt that movement was inconceivable.
因此，运动是不可能的，因为占据空间的物体没有空间可以移动。巴门尼德的朋友芝诺，比他小二十五岁，设计了一系列巧妙的悖论，旨在毫无疑问地证明运动是悖谬的。
The best known of these purports to prove that a fast mover can never overtake a slow mover. Let us suppose that Achilles, a fast runner, runs a hundred-yard race with a tortoise which can only run a quarter as fast, giving the tortoise a forty-yard start. By the time Achilles has reached the forty-yard mark, the tortoise is still ahead, by ten yards. By the time Achilles has run those ten yards, the tortoise is ahead by two-and-a-half yards.
其中最著名的一个试图证明快速移动者永远无法超过慢速移动者。让我们假设阿喀琉斯，一个快跑者， 和一只只能跑阿喀琉斯四分之一速度的乌龟，跑一百码的比赛， 给乌龟四十码的领先。当阿喀琉斯到达四十码标记时，乌龟仍然领先，十码。当阿基里斯跑完那十码时，乌龟领先两点五码。
Each time Achilles makes up the gap, the tortoise opens up a new, shorter, gap ahead of him; so it seems that he can never overtake him. Another, simpler, argument sought to prove that no one could ever run from one end of a stadium to another, because to reach the far end you must first reach the half-way point, to reach the half-way point you must first reach the point half way to that, and so ad infinitum.
每次阿基里斯弥补差距，乌龟就在他前面形成一个新的、更短的差距；所以看起来他永远也追不上它。另一个更简单的论证试图证明没有人能够从体育场的一端跑到另一端，因为要到达远端，你必须先到达中点，要到达中点，你必须先到达中点的一半，如此无穷无尽。
These and other arguments of Zeno assume that distances are infinitely divisible. This assumption was challenged by some later thinkers, and accepted by others. Aristotle, who preserved the puzzles for us, was able to disentangle some of the ambiguities. However, it was not for many centuries that the paradoxes were given solutions that satisfied both philosophers and mathematicians.
芝诺的这些和其他论证都假设距离是无限可分的。 这个假设受到了一些后来思想家的挑战，也被其他人接受。 亚里士多德为我们保存了这些难题，他能够解开其中的一些 歧义。然而，直到许多世纪之后，这些悖论才得到了既能满足哲学家又能满足数学家的解决方案。
Plato tells us that Parmenides, when he was a grey-haired sixty-five-year-old, travelled with Zeno from Elea to a festival in Athens, and there met the young Socrates. This would have been about 450 bc. Some scholars think the story a dramatic invention; but the meeting, if it took place, was a splendid inauguration of the golden age of Greek philosophy in Athens. We shall turn to Athenian philosophy shortly; but in the meantime there remain to be considered another Italian thinker, Empedocles of Acragas, and two more Ionian physicists, Leucippus and Democritus.
柏拉图告诉我们，巴门尼德在他六十五岁头发花白的时候， 和芝诺一起从埃利亚到雅典参加一个节日，那里遇到了年轻的 苏格拉底。这大约是在公元前450年。有些学者认为这个故事是一个戏剧性的创造；但是如果这次会面真的发生了，那么它就是雅典希腊哲学黄金时代的一个辉煌的开端。我们不久就会转向雅典的 哲学；但与此同时，还有另一个意大利思想家，阿克拉加斯的恩培多克勒，和另外两个爱奥尼亚物理学家， 留基伯和德谟克利特，需要被考虑。
Empedocles flourished in the middle of the fifth century and was a citizen of the town on the south coast of Sicily which is now Agrigento. He is reputed to have been an active politician, an ardent democrat who was offered, but refused, the kingship of his city. In later life he was banished and practised philosophy in exile. He was renowned as a physician, but according to the ancient biographers he cured by magic as well as by drugs, and he even raised to life a woman thirty days dead. In his last years, they tell us, he came to believe that he was a god, and met his death by leaping into the volcano Etna to establish his divinity.
恩培多克勒在公元前五世纪中叶活跃，是西西里岛南海岸现在的阿格里真托市的一位公民。他被认为是一位积极的政治家，一个热情的民主主义者，曾经被提供但拒绝了他的城市的王位。晚年他被放逐，在流亡中从事哲学。 他以医生身份而闻名，但根据古代传记家的说法，他不仅用药物而且用魔法治病，甚至让一位死了三十天的女人复活。在他最后的岁月里，他们告诉我们，他开始相信自己是一个神， 并通过跳入埃特纳火山来证明自己的神性。
Whether or not Empedocles was a wonder-worker, he deserved his reputation as an original and imaginative philosopher. He wrote two poems, longer than Parmenides’ and more fluent if also more repetitive. One was about science and one about religion. Of the former, On Nature, we possess some four hundred lines from an original two thousand; of the latter, Purifications, only smaller fragments have survived.
无论恩培多克勒是否是一个奇迹，他都值得以一位原创和富有想象力的哲学家而闻名。他写了两首诗，比巴门尼德的更长，也更流畅，如果也更重复的话。一首是关于科学的，一首是关于宗教的。前者，《论自然》，我们拥有原文两千行中的大约四百行；后者，《净化》，只有更小的片段幸存下来。
Empedocles’ philosophy of nature can be regarded as a synthesis of the thought of the Ionian philosophers. As we have seen, each of them had singled out some one substance as the basic stuff of the universe: for Thales it was water, for Anaximenes air, for Xenophanes earth, for Heraclitus fire. For Empedocles, all four of these substances stood on equal terms as the basic elements (‘roots’, in his word) of the universe. These elements have always existed, he believed, but they mingle with each other in various proportions to produce the furniture of the world.
恩培多克勒的自然哲学可以被看作是爱奥尼亚哲学家思想的综合。正如我们所见，他们每个人都选出了一种物质作为宇宙的基本物质：对于泰勒斯来说是水，对于阿那克西美尼是气，对于色诺芬尼是土，对于赫拉克利特是火。对于恩培多克勒来说，这四种物质都是作为宇宙的基本元素（他的话是“根”）平等地存在的。他相信，这些元素一直存在着，但它们以不同的比例相互混合，产生了世界的组件。
From these four sprang what was and is and ever shall Trees, beasts, and human beings, males and females all; Birds of the air, and fishes bred by water bright, The age-old gods as well, long worshipped in the height. These four are all there is, each other interweaving And, intermixed, the world’s variety achieving.
从这四种根中产生了过去、现在和将来的一切 树木、野兽和人类，男性和女性； 空中的鸟类，和水中养育的鱼类， 古老的神灵也是如此，长久地受到高处的崇拜。 这四种根就是一切，彼此交织 并且，混合在一起，实现了世界的多样性。
The interweaving and intermingling of the elements, in Empedocles’ system, is caused by two forces: Love and Strife. Love combines the elements together, making one thing out of many things, and Strife forces them apart, making many things out of one. History is a cycle in which sometimes Love is dominant, and sometimes Strife. Under the influence of Love, the elements unite into a homo-geneous and glorious sphere; then, under the influence of Strife, they separate out into beings of different kinds. All compound beings, such as animals and birds and fish, are temporary creatures which come and go; only the elements are everlasting, and only the cosmic cycle goes on for ever.
恩培多克勒的体系中，元素的交织和混合是由两种力量引起的：爱和斗争。爱将元素结合在一起，使许多事物成为一件事物，而斗争则将它们分开，使一件事物成为许多事物。历史是一个循环，在这个循环中，有时爱占主导地位，有时斗争占主导地位。在爱的影响下，元素统一成一个均匀而绚烂的球体；然后，在斗争的影响下，它们分离成不同种类的存在。所有复合的存在，如动物、鸟类和鱼类，都是暂时的生灵，来了又去；只有元素是永恒的，只有宇宙周期永远继续下去。
Empedocles’ accounts of his cosmology are sometimes prosaic and sometimes poetic. The cosmic force of Love is often personified as the joyous goddess Aphrodite, and the early stage of cosmic development is identified with a golden age over which she reigned. The element of fire is sometimes called Hephaestus, the sun-god. But despite its symbolic and mythical clothing, Empedocles’ system deserves to be taken seriously as an exercise in science.
恩培多克勒对他的宇宙论有时是平淡无奇的，有时是富有诗意的。宇宙力量之爱常常被拟人化为欢乐的女神阿佛洛狄忒，而宇宙发展的早期阶段被认同为她统治下的黄金时代。火元素有时被称为赫菲斯托斯， 太阳神。但是尽管有象征性和神话性的外衣，恩培多克勒 的体系值得被认真地当作一种科学上的尝试。
We are accustomed to think of solid, liquid, and gas as three fundamental states of matter. It was not unreasonable to think of fire, and in particular the fire of the sun, as being a fourth state of matter of equal importance. Indeed, in our own century, the emergence of the discipline of plasma physics, which studies the properties of matter at the temperature of the sun, may be said to have restored the fourth element to parity with the other three. Love and Strife can be recognized as the ancient analogues of the forces of attraction and repulsion which have played a significant part in the development of physical theory through the ages.
我们习惯于把固体、液体和气体看作是三种基本状态 物质。认为火，特别是太阳的火，是一种同等重要的第四种物质状态也不是不合理的。事实上，在我们自己的世纪，等离子物理学这门学科的出现，它研究了 太阳温度下物质的性质，可以说恢复了第四元素与其他三个元素之间的平等。爱和斗争可以被认为是古代引力和斥力的类比，引力和斥力在各个时代物理理论发展中扮演了重要角色。
Empedocles knew that the moon shone with reflected light; however, he believed the same to be true of the sun. He was aware that eclipses of the sun were caused by the interposition of the moon. He knew that plants propagated sexually, and he had an elaborate theory relating respiration to the movement of the blood within the body. He presented a crude theory of evolution. In a primitive stage of the world, he maintained, chance formed matter into isolated limbs and organs: arms without shoulders, unsocketed eyes, heads without necks. These Lego-like animal parts, again by chance, linked up into organisms, many of which were monstrosities such as human-headed oxen and ox-headed humans. Most of these fortuitous organisms were fragile or sterile; only the fittest structures survived to be the human and animal species we know.
恩培多克勒知道月亮是反射光而发光的；然而，他 相信太阳也是如此。他知道日食是由月球的遮挡 引起的。他知道植物是通过有性生殖繁殖的，他有一个复杂的理论，将呼吸与 体内血液的运动联系起来。他提出了一种粗略的进化论。在世界的 原始阶段，他坚持认为，偶然将物质形成为孤立的 肢体和器官：没有肩膀的手臂，没有眼窝的眼睛，没有脖子的头。这些乐高式的动物部分，又偶然地连接成为有机体， 其中许多是怪物，如人头牛和牛头人。这些偶然的有机体大多是脆弱或不育的；只有最适合的结构才能存活下来，成为我们所知道的人类和动物种类。
Even the gods, as we have seen, were products of the Empedoclean elements. A fortiori, the human soul was a material compound, composed of earth, air, fire, and water. Each element – and indeed the forces of love and strife – had its role in the operation of our senses, according to the principle that like is perceived by like.
即使是神灵，正如我们所见，也是恩培多克勒元素的产物。 更不用说，人类的灵魂是一种物质化合物，由土、气、火、水组成。每一种元素——甚至爱和斗争的力量——都在我们感官的运作中发挥着作用，根据同气相求的原则。
We see the earth by earth, by water water see
The air of the sky by air, by fire the fire in flame Love we perceive by love, strife by sad strife, the same.
我们用大地直观土，用液体直观水 用空气直观气，用火焰直观火。我们用爱感知爱， 我们用悲哀的斗争感知斗争，都是一样的。
Thought, in some strange way, is to be identified with the movement of the blood around the heart: blood is a refined mixture of all the elements, and this accounts for thought’s wide-ranging nature.
思想，以某种奇怪的方式，要与心脏周围的血液的运动相一致：血液是所有元素的精炼混合物，这就解释了思想的广泛性。
Empedocles’ religious poem Purifications makes clear that he accepted the Pythagorean doctrine of metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls. Strife punishes sinners by casting their souls into different kinds of creatures on land or sea.
恩培多克勒的宗教诗歌《净化》清楚地表明，他接受了 毕达哥拉斯的转世说，灵魂的转移。斗争 通过将罪人的灵魂投入到陆地或海洋上不同种类的生灵中来惩罚他们。
Empedocles told his followers to abstain from eating living things, for the bodies of the animals we eat are the dwelling-places of punished souls. It is not clear that, in order to avoid the risks here, vegetarianism would be sufficient, since on his view a human soul might migrate into a plant. The best fate for a human, he said, was to become a lion if death changed him into an animal, and a laurel if he became a plant. Best of all was to be changed into a god: those most likely to qualify for such ennoblement were seers, hymn-writers, and doctors.
恩培多克勒告诉他的追随者们要戒食活物，因为我们吃的动物的身体是受罚灵魂的居所。不清楚的是， 为了避免这里的风险，素食主义是否就足够了，因为在他看来，一个人类的灵魂可能会迁移到一棵植物中。他说，对于一个人来说，最好的命运是如果死亡把他变成了一只动物，就变成一只狮子，如果他变成了一棵植物，就变成一棵月桂树。最好的是变成一个神：最有可能获得这种尊贵的人是先知、赞美诗作者和医生。
Empedocles, who fell into all three of these categories, claimed to have experienced metempsychosis in his own person.
恩培多克勒，他属于这三类人中的所有人，声称他自己经历了转世。
I was once in the past a boy, once a girl, once a tree Once too a bird, and once a silent fish in the sea.
我曾经在过去是一个男孩，曾经是一个女孩，曾经是一棵树 也曾经是一只鸟，还有一次是海里的一条沉默的鱼。
Our present existence may be wretched, and after death our immediate prospects may be bleak; but after the punishment of our sins through reincarnation, we can look forward to eternal rest at the table of the immortals, free from weariness and suffering. No doubt this was what Empedocles looked forward to as he plunged into Etna.
我们现在的存在可能是悲惨的，死后我们的前景可能是暗淡的；但是在通过转世惩罚了我们的罪过之后，我们可以期待在不朽者的餐桌上永恒地安息，摆脱疲劳和痛苦。毫无疑问，这就是恩培多克勒跳入埃特纳火山时所期待的。
The Atomists
原子论者
Democritus was the first significant philosopher to be born in mainland Greece: he came from Abdera, in the north-eastern corner of the country. He was a pupil of one Leucippus, about whom little is known. The two philosophers are commonly mentioned together in antiquity, and the atomism which made both of them famous was probably Leucippus’ invention.
德谟克利特是第一个出生在希腊大陆的重要哲学家： 他来自希腊东北角的阿布德拉。他是一个叫做列奥基普的人的学生，关于他的情况知之甚少。这两位哲学家在古代常常被一起提到，而使他们两个都出名的原子论可能是列奥基普的发明。
Aristotle tells us that Leucippus was trying to reconcile the data of the senses with Eleatic monism, that is, the theory that there was only one everlasting, unchanging Being. Leucippus thought he had a theory which was consistent with sense-perception and would not do away with coming to be and passing away or with motion and the multiplicity of things.
亚里士多德告诉我们， 列奥基普试图用埃利亚一元论来调和感官的数据， 也就是说，只有一个永恒不变的存在的理论。 列奥基普认为他有一个与感官认识相一致的理论，但不会取消生与灭，也不会取消运动和事物的多重性。
He conceded thus much to appearances, but he agreed with the Monists that there could be no motion without void, and that the void was Unbeing and no part of Being, since Being was an absolute plenum. But there was not just one Being, but many, infinite in number and invisible because of the minuteness of their mass.
他对现象做了这样多的让步，但他同意一元论者，认为没有虚空就没有运动，而虚空是非存在而不是存在的一部分，因为存在是一个绝对的充满。但是 存在不只有一个，而是有许多，无限多，因为它们的质量太小而看不见。
However, no more than one line of Leucippus survives verbatim, and for the detailed content of the atomic theory we have to rely on what we can learn from his pupil.
然而，列奥基普的原话只有一行幸存下来，对于原子论的详细内容，我们不得不依靠我们能从他的学生那里学到的东西。
Democritus was a polymath and a prolific writer, author of nearly eighty treatises on topics ranging from poetry and harmony to military tactics and Babylonian theology. But it is for his natural philosophy that he is most remembered. He is reported to have said that he would rather discover a single scientific explanation than become King of the Persians. But he was also modest in his scientific aspirations: ‘Do not try to know everything,’ he warned, ‘or you may end up knowing nothing.’
德谟克利特是一位博学的人，也是一位多产的作家，他写了近八十篇论文，涉及从诗歌、和声到军事战术和巴比伦神学的各种主题。但是他最为人们所熟知的是他的自然哲学。据说他曾经说过，他宁愿发现一个科学的解释，也不愿成为波斯国王。但他在科学上的抱负也很谦虚：“不要试图知道一切，”他警告说，“否则你可能什么都不知道。”
The fundamental tenet of Democritus’ atomism is that matter is not infinitely divisible.
德谟克利特原子论的基本原则是，物质不是无限可分的。
According to atomism, if we take any chunk of any kind of stuff and divide it up as far as we can, we will have to come to a halt at some point at which we will reach tiny bodies which are indivisible. The argument for this conclusion seems to have been philosophical rather than experimental.
根据原子论，如果我们拿任何一块任何一种的东西并且 把它分割到尽可能小，我们将不得不在某个点停下来， 在那里我们会达到不可分割的微小的物体。如此论证的结论似乎是哲学的结论而不是实验的结论。
If matter is divisible to infinity, then let us suppose that this division has been carried out – for if matter is genuinely so divisible, there will be nothing incoherent in this supposition.
如果物质是无限可分的，那么让我们假设这种分割已经进行了 -因为如果物质真的可以被无限分割，那么这种假设就没有任何不连贯之处。
How large are the fragments resulting from this division? If they have any magnitude at all, then, on the hypothesis of infinite divisibility, it would be possible to divide them further; so they must be fragments with no extension, like a geometrical point.
从这种分割中产生的碎片有多大？如果它们有任何大小，那么，在无限可分的假设下，就有可能进一步分割它们；所以它们必须是没有延伸性的碎片，像一个几何点。
But whatever can be divided can be put together again: if we saw a log into many pieces, we can put the pieces together into a log of the same size.
但是任何可以被分割的东西都可以被重新组合：如果我们把一根木头锯成许多块，我们可以把这些块重新组合成一根相同大小的木头。
But if our fragments have no magnitude then how can they ever have added up to make the extended chunk of matter with which we began? Matter cannot consist of mere geometrical points, not even of an infinite number of them; so we have to conclude that divisibility comes to an end, and the smallest possible fragments must be bodies with sizes and shapes.
但是如果我们的碎片没有大小，那么它们怎么能够加起来构成我们开始时那个有延伸性的物质块呢？物质不能由单纯的几何点组成，即使是无限多个也不行；所以我们必须得出结论，可分性有一个终点，而最小可能的碎片必须是有大小和形状的物体。
It is these bodies which Democritus called ‘atoms’ (‘atom’ is just the Greek word for ‘indivisible’).
正是这些物体被德谟克利特称为“原子”（“原子”只是希腊语中“不可分割”的意思）。
He believed that they are too small to be detected by the senses, and that they are infinite in number and come in infinitely many different kinds.
他相信它们太小了，以至于不能被感官所察觉，而且它们的数量是无限的，而且有无限多种不同的 种类。
They are scattered, like motes in a sunbeam, in infinite empty space, which he called ‘the void’.
它们散布在无限的空虚之域， 他称之为“虚空”，就像光束中的微尘。
They have existed for ever, and they are always in motion. They collide with each other and link up with each other; some of them are concave and some convex; some are like hooks and some are like eyes.
它们永远存在着，而且总是在 运动。 它们相互碰撞和相互连接；其中一些是凹的，一些是凸的；一些像钩子，一些像眼睛。
The middle-sized objects with which we are familiar are complexes of atoms thus randomly united; and the differences between different kinds of substances are due to the differences in their atoms. Atoms, he said, differed in shape (as the letter A differs from the letter N), in order (as AN differs from NA), and in posture (as N differs from Z).
我们熟悉的中等大小的物体是由这样随机 化合起来的原子组成的；而不同种类的物质之间的差异是由于 它们的原子的差异。他说，原子在形状上有所不同（就像字母A 与字母N不同），在顺序上有所不同（就像AN与NA不同），在姿态上有所不同（就像N 与Z不同）。
Critics of Democritus in antiquity complained that while he explained everything else in terms of the motion of atoms, he had no explanation of this motion itself. Others, in his defence, claimed that the motion was caused by a force of attraction whereby each atom sought out similar atoms.
古代对德谟克利特的批评者抱怨说，他用原子的运动来解释了一切 其他事情，但他对这种运动本身没有任何解释。 其他人为他辩护，声称这种运动是由一种引力引起的， 每个原子都寻求与自己相似的原子。
But an unexplained attraction is perhaps no better than an unexplained motion. Moreover, if an attractive force had been operative for an infinite time without any counteracting force (such as Empedocles’ Strife), the world would now consist of congregations of uniform atoms; which is very different from the random aggregates with which Democritus identified the animate and inanimate beings with which we are familiar.
但是一个没有解释的 引力也许并不比一个没有解释的运动好。而且，如果一个引力在无限的时间里一直起作用，没有任何相抗衡的 力量（比如恩培多克勒的斗争），那么世界现在就会由 一致的原子聚集而成；这与德谟克利特认为我们熟悉的有生命和无生命的存在是随机 聚合物非常不同。
For Democritus, atoms and void are the only two realities: all else was appearance. When atoms approach or collide or entangle with each other, the aggregates appear as water or fire or plants or humans, but all that really exists are the underlying atoms in the void.
对于德谟克利特来说，原子和虚空是唯二的现实：其他一切都是 表象。当原子相互靠近或碰撞或纠缠时，聚合物就呈现出水或火或植物或人类的样子，但真正存在的只有 在虚空中作为基石的原子。
In particular, the qualities perceived by the senses are mere appearances. Democritus’ most often quoted dictum was: By convention sweet and by convention bitter; by convention hot, by convention cold, by convention colour: in reality atoms and void.
特别是，感官所感知到的品质都是表象。德谟克利特最常被引用的格言是：按照约定甜和按照约定苦；按照约定热，按照约定冷，按照约定颜色：实际上只有原子和虚空。
When he said that sensory qualities were ‘by convention’, ancient commentators tell us, he meant that the qualities were relative to us and did not belong to the natures of the things themselves. By nature nothing is white or black or yellow or red or bitter or sweet.
当他说感官品质是“按照约定”的时候，古代的评论家 告诉我们，他的意思是这些品质是相对于我们的，而不属于 事物本身的本性。按照本性，没有什么是白色或黑色或黄色 或红色或苦或甜的。
Democritus explained in detail how different flavours result from different kinds of atom. Sharp flavours arise from atoms which are small, fine, angular and jagged. Sweet tastes, on the other hand, originate from larger, rounder atoms.
德谟克利特详细地解释了不同种类的原子如何产生不同的味道。辛辣的味道来自于小而细、有角和锯齿状的原子。另一方面，甜味则来自于更大、更圆的原子。
If something tastes salty, that is because its atoms are large, rough, jagged and angular.
如果某物有咸味，那是因为它的原子是大的、粗糙的、锯齿状的和有角的。
Not only tastes and smells, but colours, sounds, and felt qualities are similarly to be explained by the properties and relationships of the underlying atoms. The knowledge which is given us by all these senses – taste, smell, sight, hearing, and touch – is a knowledge which is darkness. Genuine knowledge is altogether different, the prerogative of those who have mastered the theory of atoms and void.
不仅是味道和气味，而且颜色、声音和感觉到的品质也同样要用潜在原子的性质和关系来解释。所有这些感官给予我们的知识——味觉、嗅觉、视觉、听觉和触觉——是一种混沌的知识。真正的知识是完全不同的，是那些掌握了原子和虚空理论的人的特权。
Democritus wrote on ethics as well as physics: the sayings which have been handed down to us suggest that as a moralist he was edifying rather than inspiring. The following remark, sensible but unexciting, is typical of many:
德谟克利特不仅写了物理学，还写了伦理学：流传给我们的格言表明，作为一个道德家，他是教化性的而不是激励性的。下面这句话，明智而平淡，是许多格言的典型：
Be satisfied with what you have, and do not spend your time dreaming of acquisitions which excite envy and admiration; look at the lives of those who are poor and in distress, so that what you have and own may appear great and enviable.
对你所拥有的感到满足，不要浪费时间去梦想那些激起嫉妒和羡慕的收获；看看那些贫穷和困苦的人的生活，这样你所拥有和名下的东西就会显得伟大和令人羡慕。
A man who is lucky in his son-in-law, he said, gains a son, while one who is unlucky loses a daughter – a remark that has been quoted unwittingly, and often in garbled form, by many a speaker at a wedding breakfast. Many a political reformer, too, has echoed his sentiment that it is better to be poor in a democracy than prosperous in a dictatorship.
他说，一个在招女婿上幸运的人，得到了一个儿子，而一个不幸运的人，失去了一个女儿——这句话被许多在婚礼早餐上发言的人无意中引用过，而且经常是以一种混乱的形式。许多政治改革者也赞同他的观点，即在民主国家贫穷比在独裁国家富裕要好。
The sayings which have been preserved do not add up to a systematic morality, and they do not seem to have any connection with the atomic theory which underlies his philosophy. However, some of his dicta, brief and banal as they may appear, are sufficient, if true, to overturn whole systems of moral philosophy.
保存下来的格言并不能构成一个系统的道德伦理， 而且它们似乎与他的哲学所基于的原子论没有任何联系。然而，他的一些格言，尽管看起来简短而平庸，但如果是真的，就足以推翻整个道德 哲学体系。
For instance, The good person not only refrains from wrongdoing but does not even desire it. conflicts with the often held view that virtue is at its highest when it triumphs over conflicting passion. Again, It is better to suffer wrong than to inflict it. It cannot be reconciled with the utilitarian view, widespread in the modern world, that morality should take account only of the consequences of an action, not the identity of the agent.
例如，善良的人不仅不做坏事 而且甚至不想做坏事。 这与经常持有的观点相冲突，即美德在内心的善良战胜邪恶后达到了至高。再者， 受到伤害比造成伤害要好。 这与现代世界广泛流行的功利主义观点不相容， 即道德应该只考虑行为的后果，而不是行为者的身份。
In late antiquity, and in the Renaissance, Democritus was known as the laughing philosopher, while Heraclitus was known as the weeping philosopher. Neither description seems very solidly based. However, there are remarks attributed to Democritus which support his claim to cheerfulness, notably A life without feasting is like a highway without inns.
在晚期古代和文艺复兴时期，德谟克利特被称为happy猫哲学家，而赫拉克利特被称为香蕉猫哲学家，就知道哭。 这两种描述似乎都没有很牢固的依据。然而，有一些言论 归于德谟克利特，支持他对快乐的主张，尤其是“没有盛宴的生活就像一条没有旅馆的公路”。
