Lucretius

"There is no reason to set humans apart from other animals, no hope of bribing or appeasing the gods, no place for religious fanaticism, no call for ascetic self-denial, no justification for dreams of limitless power or perfect security, no rationale for wars of conquest or self-aggrandizement, no possibility of triumphing over nature. Instead...human beings should conquer their fears, accept the fact that they themselves and all the things they encounter are transitory, and embrace the beauty and the pleasure of the world."

-- Stephen Greenblatt in The New Yorker,

summarizing "On the Nature of Things,"

by Roman poet Lucretius

(Photo: Sticker found in New Brunswick, NJ, in June.)