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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
Would
Draw
Like
Draws
Horse
Atheism
Religion
Hands
Horses
Look
Cows
Looks
Gods

More quotes by 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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God is one, greatest of gods and men, not like mortals in body or thought.
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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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.
Xenophanes
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It isn't right to judge strength as better than good wisdom.
Xenophanes
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...for our wisdom is better than the strength of men or of horses. ... nor is it right to prefer strength to excellent wisdom. For if there should be in the city [any athlete whose skill] is honoured more than strength ... the city would not on that account be any better governed.
Xenophanes
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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 lions had hands and could paint with their hands and produce works of art, as men do, horses would paint the forms of the gods likes horses and oxen like oxen. Each would represent them with bodies according to the bodies of each. So the Ethiopians make their gods black and snub-nosed the Thracians give theirs red hair and blue eyes.
Xenophanes
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For all things come from earth, and all things end by becoming earth.
Xenophanes
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For we are all sprung from earth and water
Xenophanes
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But without effort [God] sets in motion all things by mind and thought.
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
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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.
Xenophanes
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It takes a wise man to recognize a wise man.
Xenophanes
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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 them out better.
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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All things that come into being and grow are earth and water.
Xenophanes
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If cattle and horses, or lions, had hands...
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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Men always makes gods in their own image.
Xenophanes