Life is given to no one in freehold, but to all on loan.
Genuine
Yes. In On the Nature of Things (55 BC), Book III, line 971; Leonard, Book III, “Folly of the Fear of Death”.
Found word for word by program in the Latin original and in William Ellery Leonard’s English translation (1916).
The wording people share comes from a later translation; Leonard’s words are underlined below.
- Work
- On the Nature of Things (De rerum natura), 55 BC
- Where
- Book III, line 971; Leonard, Book III, “Folly of the Fear of Death”
- Found at
- Paragraph 81 of the Latin text, 163 of the English
- Translation
- William Ellery Leonard, 1916
Researched by AI; checked by program against the full text on 31 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
On the page
This too, O often from the soul men say, Along their couches holding of the cups, With faces shaded by fresh wreaths awry: “Brief is this fruit of joy to paltry man, Soon, soon departed, and thereafter, no, It may not be recalled.”—As if, forsooth, It were their prime of evils in great death To parch, poor tongues, with thirst and arid drought, Or chafe for any lack.
[…] Hoc etiam faciunt ubi discubuere tenentque pocula saepe homines et inumbrant ora coronis, ex animo ut dicant: ‘brevis hic est fructus homullis; iam fuerit neque post umquam revocare licebit.’ tam quam in morte mali cum primis hoc sit eorum, quod sitis exurat miseros atque arida torrat, aut aliae cuius desiderium insideat rei. nec sibi enim quisquam tum se vitamque requiret, cum pariter mens et corpus sopita quiescunt; nam licet aeternum per nos sic esse soporem, nec desiderium nostri nos adficit ullum, et tamen haud quaquam nostros tunc illa per artus longe ab sensiferis primordia motibus errant, cum correptus homo ex somno se colligit ipse. multo igitur mortem minus ad nos esse putandumst, si minus esse potest quam quod nihil esse videmus; maior enim turbae disiectus materiai consequitur leto nec quisquam expergitus extat, frigida quem semel est vitai pausa secuta.
[…] Nor no man is consigned to the abyss Of Tartarus, the black. For stuff must be, That thus the after-generations grow,— Though these, their life completed, follow thee; And thus like thee are generations all— Already fallen, or some time to fall. So one thing from another rises ever; And in fee-simple life is given to none, But unto all mere usufruct.1
[…] Nec quisquam in barathrum nec Tartara deditur atra; materies opus est, ut crescant postera saecla; quae tamen omnia te vita perfuncta sequentur; nec minus ergo ante haec quam tu cecidere cadentque. sic alid ex alio numquam desistet oriri vitaque mancipio nulli datur, omnibus usu. respice item quam nil ad nos ante acta vetustas temporis aeterni fuerit, quam nascimur ante. hoc igitur speculum nobis natura futuri temporis exponit post mortem denique nostram. numquid ibi horribile apparet, num triste videtur quicquam, non omni somno securius exstat?
Look back: Nothing to us was all fore-passed eld Of time the eternal, ere we had a birth. And Nature holds this like a mirror up Of time-to-be when we are dead and gone. And what is there so horrible appears? […]
Atque ea ni mirum quae cumque Acherunte profundo prodita sunt esse, in vita sunt omnia nobis. nec miser inpendens magnum timet aëre saxum Tantalus, ut famast, cassa formidine torpens; sed magis in vita divom metus urget inanis mortalis casumque timent quem cuique ferat fors. nec Tityon volucres ineunt Acherunte iacentem nec quod sub magno scrutentur pectore quicquam perpetuam aetatem possunt reperire profecto. quam libet immani proiectu corporis exstet, qui non sola novem dispessis iugera membris optineat, sed qui terrai totius orbem, non tamen aeternum poterit perferre dolorem nec praebere cibum proprio de corpore semper. sed Tityos nobis hic est, in amore iacentem quem volucres lacerant atque exest anxius angor aut alia quavis scindunt cuppedine curae. […]
And, verily, those tortures said to be In Acheron, the deep, they all are ours Here in this life. […]
Hoc etiam tibi tute interdum dicere possis. […]
The scene
Spoken near the end of Book III, in the speech Lucretius gives to Nature, who answers a man grieving at his death. She tells him that new things are made from the old, that those who died before him were as good as he, and that life is not owned but used: others will follow as he did. Her speech goes on at once with the ‘look back’ argument that the time before our birth is a mirror for the time after death.
What it means
Life is not property that one holds forever but something one uses for a time and then returns, so that the next may have it.
Often misread
Sometimes given as Lucretius’ own sentiment against grieving. It is Nature’s rebuke, in the poet’s invented speech, to someone who cannot let go; Latin mancipium and usus are Roman property terms (ownership by formal sale against use), which Leonard renders with English terms (‘fee-simple’, ‘usufruct’).
Also shared as
- Shortenedvitaque mancipio nulli datur, omnibus usu The tag as usually cited. Where it was seen
Topics
Related quotes
- The just man enjoys the greatest peace of mind, while the unjust is full of the utmost disquietude. Epicurus
- For a short term of life is long enough for living well and honourably. Marcus Tullius Cicero
- Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not. Epicurus
- The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Martin Luther King Jr.
- Nature’s wealth at once has its bounds and is easy to procure; but the wealth of vain fancies recedes to an infinite distance. Epicurus
Sources
Cite it
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things (55 BC), Book III, line 971; Leonard, Book III, “Folly of the Fear of Death”, translated by William Ellery Leonard (1916). Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/life-is-given-to-none-in-freehold/ (31 October 2026).
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Checked by people
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