Like runners, we hand on the torch of life.
Paraphrase
Not in these words. The idea is in On the Nature of Things (55 BC), Book II, lines 77–79; Leonard, Book II, “Eternal Motion of Atoms” (the passage on replenishment of the sum of things).
The real passage, shown below, is found word for word by program in the Latin original and in William Ellery Leonard’s English translation (1916).
- Work
- On the Nature of Things (De rerum natura), 55 BC
- The real passage
- Book II, lines 77–79; Leonard, Book II, “Eternal Motion of Atoms” (the passage on replenishment of the sum of things)
Researched by AI; closest passage located by program on 31 October 2026. Entry updated 26 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
The real passage
[…] This terror then, this darkness of the mind, Not sunrise with its flaring spokes of light, Nor glittering arrows of morning can disperse, But only nature’s aspect and her law.
Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem; non quia vexari quemquamst iucunda voluptas, sed quibus ipse malis careas quia cernere suavest. suave etiam belli certamina magna tueri per campos instructa tua sine parte pericli; sed nihil dulcius est, bene quam munita tenere edita doctrina sapientum templa serena, despicere unde queas alios passimque videre errare atque viam palantis quaerere vitae, certare ingenio, contendere nobilitate, noctes atque dies niti praestante labore ad summas emergere opes rerumque potiri. o miseras hominum mentes, o pectora caeca! qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque periclis degitur hoc aevi quod cumquest! nonne videre nihil aliud sibi naturam latrare, nisi ut qui corpore seiunctus dolor absit, mente fruatur iucundo sensu cura semota metuque? ergo corpoream ad naturam pauca videmus esse opus omnino: quae demant cumque dolorem, delicias quoque uti multas substernere possint gratius inter dum, neque natura ipsa requirit, si non aurea sunt iuvenum simulacra per aedes lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris, lumina nocturnis epulis ut suppeditentur, nec domus argento fulget auroque renidet nec citharae reboant laqueata aurataque templa, cum tamen inter se prostrati in gramine molli propter aquae rivum sub ramis arboris altae non magnis opibus iucunde corpora curant, praesertim cum tempestas adridet et anni tempora conspergunt viridantis floribus herbas. nec calidae citius decedunt corpore febres, textilibus si in picturis ostroque rubenti iacteris, quam si in plebeia veste cubandum est. quapropter quoniam nihil nostro in corpore gazae proficiunt neque nobilitas nec gloria regni, quod super est, animo quoque nil prodesse putandum; si non forte tuas legiones per loca campi fervere cum videas belli simulacra cientis, subsidiis magnis et opum vi constabilitas, ornatas armis stlattas pariterque animatas, his tibi tum rebus timefactae religiones effugiunt animo pavidae mortisque timores tum vacuum pectus lincunt curaque solutum. quod si ridicula haec ludibriaque esse videmus, re veraque metus hominum curaeque sequaces nec metuunt sonitus armorum nec fera tela audacterque inter reges rerumque potentis versantur neque fulgorem reverentur ab auro nec clarum vestis splendorem purpureai, quid dubitas quin omnis sit haec rationis potestas, omnis cum in tenebris praesertim vita laboret? nam vel uti pueri trepidant atque omnia caecis in tenebris metuunt, sic nos in luce timemus inter dum, nihilo quae sunt metuenda magis quam quae pueri in tenebris pavitant finguntque futura. hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necessest non radii solis neque lucida tela diei discutiant, sed naturae species ratioque.
[…] Thus the sum Forever is replenished, and we live As mortals by eternal give and take. The nations wax, the nations wane away; In a brief space the generations pass, And like to runners hand the lamp of life One unto other.1
Nunc age, quo motu genitalia materiai corpora res varias gignant genitasque resolvant et qua vi facere id cogantur quaeque sit ollis reddita mobilitas magnum per inane meandi, expediam: tu te dictis praebere memento. nam certe non inter se stipata cohaeret materies, quoniam minui rem quamque videmus et quasi longinquo fluere omnia cernimus aevo ex oculisque vetustatem subducere nostris, cum tamen incolumis videatur summa manere propterea quia, quae decedunt corpora cuique, unde abeunt minuunt, quo venere augmine donant. illa senescere, at haec contra florescere cogunt, nec remorantur ibi. sic rerum summa novatur semper, et inter se mortales mutua vivunt. augescunt aliae gentes, aliae minuuntur, inque brevi spatio mutantur saecla animantum et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt.
But if thou believe That the primordial germs of things can stop, And in their stopping give new motions birth, Afar thou wanderest from the road of truth. […]
Si cessare putas rerum primordia posse cessandoque novos rerum progignere motus, avius a vera longe ratione vagaris. nam quoniam per inane vagantur, cuncta necessest aut gravitate sua ferri primordia rerum aut ictu forte alterius. nam cum cita saepe obvia conflixere, fit ut diversa repente dissiliant; neque enim mirum, durissima quae sint ponderibus solidis neque quicquam a tergibus obstet. et quo iactari magis omnia materiai corpora pervideas, reminiscere totius imum nil esse in summa, neque habere ubi corpora prima consistant, quoniam spatium sine fine modoquest inmensumque patere in cunctas undique partis pluribus ostendi et certa ratione probatumst. quod quoniam constat, ni mirum nulla quies est reddita corporibus primis per inane profundum, sed magis adsiduo varioque exercita motu partim intervallis magnis confulta resultant, pars etiam brevibus spatiis vexantur ab ictu. et quae cumque magis condenso conciliatu exiguis intervallis convecta resultant, indupedita suis perplexis ipsa figuris, haec validas saxi radices et fera ferri corpora constituunt et cetera de genere horum. paucula quae porro magnum per inane vagantur, cetera dissiliunt longe longeque recursant in magnis intervallis; haec aera rarum sufficiunt nobis et splendida lumina solis. multaque praeterea magnum per inane vagantur, conciliis rerum quae sunt reiecta nec usquam consociare etiam motus potuere recepta. […]
Herein wonder not How ‘tis that, while the seeds of things are all Moving forever, the sum yet seems to stand Supremely still, except in cases where A thing shows motion of its frame as whole. […]
Nunc quae mobilitas sit reddita materiai corporibus, paucis licet hinc cognoscere, Memmi. primum aurora novo cum spargit lumine terras et variae volucres nemora avia pervolitantes aera per tenerum liquidis loca vocibus opplent, quam subito soleat sol ortus tempore tali convestire sua perfundens omnia luce, omnibus in promptu manifestumque esse videmus. at vapor is, quem sol mittit, lumenque serenum non per inane meat vacuum; quo tardius ire cogitur, aerias quasi dum diverberat undas; nec singillatim corpuscula quaeque vaporis sed complexa meant inter se conque globata; qua propter simul inter se retrahuntur et extra officiuntur, uti cogantur tardius ire. at quae sunt solida primordia simplicitate, cum per inane meant vacuum nec res remoratur ulla foris atque ipsa suis e partibus unum, unum, in quem coepere, locum conixa feruntur, debent ni mirum praecellere mobilitate et multo citius ferri quam lumina solis multiplexque loci spatium transcurrere eodem tempore quo solis pervolgant fulgura caelum. […]
How the shared form came about
The popular form says torch (so Rouse in Wikiquote); Lucretius says lampada, a lamp or torch (in a Greek torch-race, lampadedromia, a torch). Leonard (1916) has ‘lamp of life’. The Latin has the simile of runners handing on lampada, with no ‘we’; the popular sentence turns it into a first-person saying.
In context
In Book II Lucretius argues that the sum of things is always renewed: as some peoples and species grow others dwindle, and the generations of living things change in a short time, ‘and like runners hand on the lamp of life’. The image follows the claim that nothing is lost but only passes on, and it prepares the argument that life is a loan to each (see the lines of Book III).
What it says
Each generation passes life on to the next as a relay runner passes the torch, so that the whole is renewed while the individual runs his stretch and stops.
Often misread
Used as a bare image of duty or legacy (‘pass on the torch’). In the poem it is part of an argument about physical renewal: matter and species are replenished by eternal give and take, and the image carries no moral of inheritance or mission. The ‘torch’ is also the translator’s choice or the reader’s; the word is lampada.
Also shared as
- Shortenedquasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt The tag as usually cited. Where it was seen
Topics
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- A room without books is like a body without a soul. (paraphrase) Marcus Tullius Cicero
Sources
Cite it
“Like runners, we hand on the torch of life.” Attributed to Lucretius. Not in these words. The idea is in On the Nature of Things (55 BC), Book II, lines 77–79; Leonard, Book II, “Eternal Motion of Atoms” (the passage on replenishment of the sum of things). Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/runners-pass-on-the-torch-of-life/ (checked 26 October 2026).
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