Quotes by Xenophanes

About Xenophanes:

Xenophanes of Colophon is the earliest Greek poet who claims explicitly to be writing for future generations, creating "fame that will reach all of Greece, and never die while the Greek kind of songs survives."
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

No human being will ever know the Truth, for even if they happen to say it by chance, they would not even known they had done so.

Xenophanes

God is one, greatest of gods and men, not like mortals in body or thought.

Xenophanes

There is one God - supreme among gods and men - who is like mortals in neither body nor mind.

Xenophanes

It isn't right to judge strength as better than good wisdom.

Xenophanes

All men begin their learning with Homer.

Xenophanes

But if cattle and horses or lions had hands, or were able to draw with their hands and do the work that men can do, horses would draw the forms of the gods like horses, and cattle like cattle, and they would make their bodies such as they each had th...

Xenophanes

Men create the gods in their own image.

Xenophanes

If cattle and horses, or lions, had hands, or were able to draw with their feet and produce the works which men do, horses would draw the forms of gods like horses, and cattle like cattle, and they would make the gods' bodies the same shape as their ...

Xenophanes

Better than the strength of men and horses is our wisdom.

Xenophanes

It takes a wise man to recognize a wise man.

Xenophanes

The gods did not reveal, from the beginning, all things to us.

Xenophanes

Men always makes gods in their own image.

Xenophanes

The Ethiops say that their gods are flat-nosed and black, While the Thracians say that theirs have blue eyes and red hair. Yet if cattle or horses or lions had hands and could draw, And could sculpt like men, then the horses would draw their gods Lik...

Xenophanes

Author Bio

  • NameXenophanes
  • DescriptionPresocratic philosopher
  • Born570 BCE
  • Died475 BCE
  • CountryAncient Greece
  • ProfessionPhilosopher; Poet; Author