Xenophanes Quotes

31 quotes in 308 categories

• If oxen and lions had hands and could paint with their hands and produce works of art, as men do, horses would paint the forms…
• Ethiopians imagine their gods as black and snub-nosed; Thracians blue-eyed and red-haired. But if horses or lions had hands, or could draw and fashion works…
• The sea is the source of water and the source of wind; for neither would blasts of wind arise in the clouds and blow out…
• No human being will ever know the truth, for even if they happen to say it by chance, they would not even know they had…
• It takes a wise man to recognize a wise man.
• But without effort [God] sets in motion all things by mind and thought.
• In the beginning the gods did not at all reveal all things clearly to mortals, but by searching men in the course of time find…
• If cows and horses had hands and could draw, cows would draw gods that look like cows and horses would draw gods that look like…
• The Gods did not reveal, from the beginning, all things to us, but in the course of time through seeking we may learn & know…
• This upper limit, of earth at our feet is visible and touches the air, but below it reaches to infinity
• Men always makes gods in their own image.
• For all things come from earth, and all things end by becoming earth.
• God is one, greatest of gods and men, not like mortals in body or thought.
• The Ethiopians say that their gods are snub-nosed and black the Thracians that theirs have light blue eyes and red hair.
• Even if a man should chance to speak the most complete truth, yet he himself does not know it; all things are wrapped in appearances
• It isn't right to judge strength as better than good wisdom.
• Truly the gods have not from the beginning revealed all things to mortals, but by long seeking, mortals discover what is better.
• If cattle and horses, or lions, had hands...
• The sun comes into being each day from little pieces of fire that are collected.
• All things that come into being and grow are earth and water.

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