You alone govern the nature of things. Without you nothing emerges into the light of day, without you nothing is joyous or lovely.

Tis pleasant to stand on shore and watch others labouring in a stormy sea.

And part of the soil is called to wash away In storms and streams shave close and gnaw the rocks. Besides, whatever the earth feeds and grows Is restored to earth. And since she surely is The womb of all things and their common grave, Earth must dwindle, you see and take on growth again.

...if one thing frightens people, it is that so much happens, on earth and out in space, the reasons for which seem somehow to escape them, and they fill in the gap by putting it down to the gods.

It is pleasant, when the sea is high and the winds are dashing the waves about, to watch from the shores the struggles of another.

Huts they made then, and fire, and skins for clothing, And a woman yielded to one man in wedlock... ... Common, to see the offspring they had made; The human race began to mellow then. Because of fire their shivering forms no longer Could bear the cold beneath the covering sky.

You may complete as many generations as you please during your life; none the less will that everlasting death await you.