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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 horses.

Xenophanes

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Xenophanes
Elegist
Epigrammatist
Philosopher
Poet
Xenophanes of Colophon
Look
Cows
Looks
Gods
Would
Draw
Like
Draws
Horse
Atheism
Religion
Hands
Horses

More quotes by Xenophanes

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Truly the gods have not from the beginning revealed all things to mortals, but by long seeking, mortals discover what is better.
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The Ethiopians say that their gods are snub-nosed and black the Thracians that theirs have light blue eyes and red hair.
Xenophanes
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It takes a wise man to recognize a wise man.
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Homer and Hesiod attributed to the gods all things which are disreputable and worthy of blame when done by men and they told of them many lawless deeds, stealing, adultery, and deception of each other.
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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 from within them, except for the great sea, nor would the streams of rivers nor the rain-water in the sky exist but for the sea but the great sea is the begetter of clouds and winds and rivers.
Xenophanes
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If oxen and horses and lions could draw and paint, they would delineate the gods in their own image.
Xenophanes
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If God had not made brown honey, men would think figs much sweeter than they do.
Xenophanes
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But without effort [God] sets in motion all things by mind and thought.
Xenophanes
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For all things come from earth, and all things end by becoming earth.
Xenophanes
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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 as men do, horses would draw the gods shaped like horses and lions like lions, making the gods resemble themselves.
Xenophanes
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God is one, supreme among gods and men, and not like mortals in body or in mind.The whole [of god] sees, the whole perceives, the whole hears. But without effort he sets in motion all things by mind and thought.
Xenophanes
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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
Xenophanes
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The clear and perfect truth no man has seen, nor will there be anyone who knows about the gods and what I say about all things... for, however perfect what he says may be, yet he does not know it all things are matters of opinion.
Xenophanes
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No man knows distinctly anything, and no man ever will.
Xenophanes
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It isn't right to judge strength as better than good wisdom.
Xenophanes
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Men always makes gods in their own image.
Xenophanes
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Pure truth no man has seen, nor ever shall know.
Xenophanes
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If horses had Gods, they would look like horses.
Xenophanes
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This upper limit, of earth at our feet is visible and touches the air, but below it reaches to infinity
Xenophanes
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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 done so.
Xenophanes