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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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Xenophanes
Elegist
Epigrammatist
Philosopher
Poet
Xenophanes of Colophon
Long
Gods
Things
Discover
Seeking
Discovery
Beginning
Truly
Science
Revealed
Better
Mortals

More quotes by Xenophanes

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God is one, greatest of gods and men, not like mortals in body or thought.
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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.
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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.
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The sun comes into being each day from little pieces of fire that are collected.
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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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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If oxen and horses and lions could draw and paint, they would delineate the gods in their own image.
Xenophanes
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All things that come into being and grow are earth and water.
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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If cattle and horses, or lions, had hands...
Xenophanes
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Men always makes gods in their own image.
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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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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For we are all sprung from earth and water
Xenophanes
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No man knows distinctly anything, and no man ever will.
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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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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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 takes a wise man to recognize a wise man.
Xenophanes