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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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Xenophanes
Elegist
Epigrammatist
Philosopher
Poet
Xenophanes of Colophon
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Wisdom
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More quotes by 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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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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All things that come into being and grow are earth and water.
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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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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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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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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If cattle and horses, or lions, had hands...
Xenophanes
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If horses had Gods, they would look like horses.
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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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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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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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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It takes a wise man to recognize a wise man.
Xenophanes
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Men always makes gods in their own image.
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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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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Pure truth no man has seen, nor ever shall know.
Xenophanes