“What is food to one, is to others bitter poison.”Lucretius · Despre natura lucrurilor · -55 · Cartea IV, versul 637
There is no universal good; what nourishes one can kill another.
Lucretius observes the relativity of perceptions and effects: nature does not provide universal reactions. Food that nourishes one person can poison another, due to differences in constitution or tolerance. This applies morally or socially too: what seems good in one context may be bad in another. For example, competition motivates some but paralyzes others.
Why it matters In daily life, this thought teaches us not to generalize and to respect the diversity of individual experiences.