Humana ante oculos foede cum vita iaceret in terris oppressa gravi sub religione […] primum Graius homo mortalis tollere contra est oculos ausus primusque obsistere contra […] ergo vivida vis animi pervicit, et extra processit longe flammantia moenia mundi atque omne immensum peragravit mente animoque, unde refert nobis victor quid possit oriri, […] quare religio pedibus subiecta vicissim obteritur, nos exaequat victoria caelo.
(When the life of man lay foul to see and grovelling upon the earth, crushed by the weight of superstition, […] ’twas a man of Greece who dared first to raise his mortal eyes to meet her, and first to stand forth to meet her […]. And so it was that the lively force of his mind won its way, and he passed beyond the fiery walls of the world, and in mind and spirit traversed the boundless whole; whence in victory he brings us tidings what can come to be and what cannot […]. And so superstition in revenge is cast beneath men’s feet and trampled, and victory raises us to heaven.) — Lucretius