What is food to one, is to others bitter poison.
Genuine
Yes. In On the Nature of Things (55 BC), Book IV, lines 633–641 (the quoted line is IV.637); Leonard, Book IV, “The Senses and Mental Pictures”.
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 IV, lines 633–641 (the quoted line is IV.637); Leonard, Book IV, “The Senses and Mental Pictures”
- Found at
- Paragraph 109 of the Latin text, 206 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
[…] Next, only up to palate is the pleasure Coming from flavour; for in truth when down ‘Thas plunged along the throat, no pleasure is, Whilst into all the frame it spreads around; Nor aught it matters with what food is fed The body, if only what thou take thou canst Distribute well digested to the frame And keep the stomach in a moist career.
Quod super est, non est mirandum qua ratione, per loca quae nequeunt oculi res cernere apertas, haec loca per voces veniant aurisque lacessant, conloquium clausis foribus quoque saepe videmus; ni mirum quia vox per flexa foramina rerum incolumis transire potest, simulacra renutant; perscinduntur enim, nisi recta foramina tranant, qualia sunt vitrei, species qua travolat omnis. praeterea partis in cunctas dividitur vox, ex aliis aliae quoniam gignuntur, ubi una dissuluit semel in multas exorta, quasi ignis saepe solet scintilla suos se spargere in ignis. ergo replentur loca vocibus abdita retro, omnia quae circum fervunt sonituque cientur. at simulacra viis derectis omnia tendunt, ut sunt missa semel; qua propter cernere nemo saepe supra potis est, at voces accipere extra. et tamen ipsa quoque haec, dum transit clausa domorum vox optunditur atque auris confusa penetrat et sonitum potius quam verba audire videmur.
Now, how it is we see some food for some, Others for others....
[…] Nunc aliis alius qui sit cibus ut videamus, expediam, quareve, aliis quod triste et amarumst, hoc tamen esse aliis possit perdulce videri, tantaque in his rebus distantia differitasque est, ut quod aliis cibus est aliis fuat acre venenum; est itaque ut serpens, hominis quae tacta salivis disperit ac sese mandendo conficit ipsa. praeterea nobis veratrum est acre venenum, at capris adipes et cocturnicibus auget. id quibus ut fiat rebus cognoscere possis, principio meminisse decet quae diximus ante, semina multimodis in rebus mixta teneri. porro omnes quae cumque cibum capiunt animantes, ut sunt dissimiles extrinsecus et generatim extima membrorum circumcaesura coërcet, proinde et seminibus constant variantque figura. semina cum porro distent, differre necessest intervalla viasque, foramina quae perhibemus, omnibus in membris et in ore ipsoque palato. esse minora igitur quaedam maioraque debent, esse triquetra aliis, aliis quadrata necessest, multa rutunda, modis multis multangula quaedam. namque figurarum ratio ut motusque reposcunt, proinde foraminibus debent differe figurae et variare viae proinde ac textura coërcet. hoc ubi quod suave est aliis aliis fit amarum, illi, cui suave est, levissima corpora debent contractabiliter caulas intrare palati, at contra quibus est eadem res intus acerba, aspera ni mirum penetrant hamataque fauces. nunc facile est ex his rebus cognoscere quaeque. quippe ubi cui febris bili superante coorta est aut alia ratione aliquast vis excita morbi, perturbatur ibi iam totum corpus et omnes commutantur ibi positurae principiorum; fit prius ad sensum ut quae corpora conveniebant nunc non conveniant, et cetera sint magis apta, quae penetrata queunt sensum progignere acerbum; utraque enim sunt in mellis commixta sapore; id quod iam supera tibi saepe ostendimus ante.
I will unfold, or wherefore what to some Is foul and bitter, yet the same to others Can seem delectable to eat,—why here So great the distance and the difference is That what is food to one to some becomes Fierce poison, as a certain snake there is Which, touched by spittle of a man, will waste And end itself by gnawing up its coil.1 Again, fierce poison is the hellebore To us, but puts the fat on goats and quails. That thou mayst know by what devices this Is brought about, in chief thou must recall What we have said before, that seeds are kept Commixed in things in divers modes. […]
Nunc age, quo pacto naris adiectus odoris tangat agam. primum res multas esse necessest unde fluens volvat varius se fluctus odorum, et fluere et mitti volgo spargique putandumst; verum aliis alius magis est animantibus aptus, dissimilis propter formas. ideoque per auras mellis apes quamvis longe ducuntur odore, volturiique cadaveribus; tum fissa ferarum ungula quo tulerit gressum promissa canum vis ducit, et humanum longe praesentit odorem Romulidarum arcis servator, candidus anser. sic aliis alius nidor datus ad sua quemque pabula ducit et a taetro resilire veneno cogit, eoque modo servantur saecla ferarum. […]
*****
Nunc age, quae moveant animum res accipe, et unde quae veniunt veniant in mentem percipe paucis. principio hoc dico, rerum simulacra vagari multa modis multis in cunctas undique partis tenvia, quae facile inter se iunguntur in auris, obvia cum veniunt, ut aranea bratteaque auri. quippe etenim multo magis haec sunt tenvia textu quam quae percipiunt oculos visumque lacessunt, corporis haec quoniam penetrant per rara cientque tenvem animi naturam intus sensumque lacessunt. […]
Indeed, where one from o’er-abundant bile Is stricken with fever, or in other wise Feels the roused violence of some malady, There the whole frame is now upset, and there All the positions of the seeds are changed,— So that the bodies which before were fit To cause the savour, now are fit no more, And now more apt are others which be able To get within the pores and gender sour. […]
The scene
Part of Lucretius’ account of taste in Book IV. Having said that the pleasure of food lies only in the palate, he sets out to explain why what is bitter and foul to some seems delicious to others. His examples are a snake that dies when touched by human spittle, and hellebore, a poison to people that fattens goats and quails. The explanation follows: bodies and palates are made of atoms of different shapes, with pores of different shapes, so the same food meets them differently.
What it means
Creatures differ so much in their make-up that the same thing can nourish one and poison another.
Often misread
Used as the source of ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’, a saying about differing tastes and preferences. In the poem it is a literal claim about bodies and food, explained by the shapes of atoms, not a point about taste in the figurative sense.
Also shared as
- ShortenedUt quod ali cibus est aliis fuat acre venenum. The line as cited in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations and on Wikiquote, with the reading ‘ali’ of other editions; the Perseus text reads ‘aliis’. Where it was seen
A similar thought
- English proverb: ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison’; Wikiquote compares Beaumont and Fletcher, Love’s Cure (1647), Act III, scene 2: “What’s one man’s poison, signor, / Is another’s meat or drink”. Source
Topics
Related quotes
- We are now facing a problem more of ethics than of physics. Bernard Baruch
- To be angry is what any man can do, and easy: but to do these to the right person, in due proportion, at the right time, with a right object, and in the right manner, this is not as before what any man can do, nor is it easy. (paraphrase) Aristotle
- Virtue is a mean state; but in reference to the chief good and to excellence it is the highest state possible. Aristotle
- Of things some are in our power, and others are not. Epictetus
- More law, less justice. Marcus Tullius Cicero
Sources
Cite it
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things (55 BC), Book IV, lines 633–641 (the quoted line is IV.637); Leonard, Book IV, “The Senses and Mental Pictures”, translated by William Ellery Leonard (1916). Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/what-is-food-to-one-is-to-others-bitter-poison/ (31 October 2026).
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