... moving randomly through space, like dust motes in a sunbeam, colliding, hooking together, forming complex structures, breaking apart again, in a ceaseless process of creation and destruction. There is no escape from this process. ... There is no master plan, no divine architect, no intelligent design.
All things, including the species to which you belong, have evolved over vast stretches of time. The evolution is random, though in the case of living organisms, it involves a principle of natural selection. That is, species that are suited to survive and to reproduce successfully, endure, at least for a time; those that are not so well suited, die off quickly. But nothing - from our own species, to the planet on which we live, to the sun that lights our day - lasts forever. Only the atoms are immortal ...
The author was Roman philosopher and poet Lucretius.
Listen to Robert Krulwich report on "Lucretius, Man Of Modern Mystery" (NPR doesn't credit the translator):
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/09/19/140533195/lucretius-man-of-modern-mystery
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I heard long ago that "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" was not John F Kennedy's invention, but actually Cicero's. I suspect we might reverse that order today. It's a different world than the one Kennedy observed. Certainly the opportunities to serve are many and people are needed, but the enormous shift in wealth, job security, declining health and affordable health care options, discarded children and ignored schools, etc, have me looking to my government to solve some of this mess (as well do what good citizens can do), especially when 100th of 1% control the majority of wealth (recent statistic I heard on WPRR http://www.publicrealityradio.org/) and hence the most immediate influence to affect change.
NBC New interview with Warren Buffett in which he says his tax rate is lower than his secretary's:
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