Titus Lucretius Carus (ca. 99 BCE – ca. 55 BCE)
Roman Poet and Philosopher

Therefore this terror and darkness of the mind
Not by the sun’s rays, nor the bright shafts of day,
Must be dispersed, as is most necessary,
But by the face of nature and her laws.

We start then from her first great principle
That nothing ever by divine power comes from nothing.
For sure fear holds so much the minds of men
Because they see many things happen in earth and sky
Of which they can by no means see the causes,
And think them to be done by power divine.
So when we have seen that nothing can be created
From nothing, we shall at once discern more clearly
The object of our search, both the source from which each thing
Can be created, and the manner in which
Things come into being without the aid of gods.