Democritus
A celebrated philosopher of Abdera, one of the disciples of Leucippus. He traveled over the greatest part of Europe, Asia, and Africa in quest of knowledge, and returned home in the greatest poverty. He indulged in continual laughter at the follies of mankind for distracting themselves with care and anxiety in the short term of their lives.
He told Darius, who was inconsolable for the loss of his wife, that he would raise her from the dead if he could find three persons who had gone through life without adversity, whose names he might engrave on the queen's monument. He taught his disciples that the soul died with the body. He died in his 109th year, B. C. 361. He has been termed the laughing philosopher. Dr. Johnson refers to this phase in his character in "The Vanity of Human Wishes": "Once more, Democritus, arise on earth, With cheerful wisdom and instructive mirth, See motley life in modern trappings drest, And feed with varied fools th' eternal jest."