Anaxagoras Quotes on Knowledge
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae was an ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosopher of the 5th century BC, born in Ionia and active for many years in Athens, where he was a friend and reportedly a teacher of Pericles. This page collects quotes attributed to Anaxagoras on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to Anaxagoras:
“All things were together, infinite both in number and in smallness; then Mind came and arranged them.”
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Attributed to Anaxagoras:
“The sun is a fiery stone larger than the Peloponnese.”
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Attributed to Anaxagoras:
“I was born to contemplate the heavens.”
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“Wrongly do the Greeks suppose that aught begins or ceases to be; for nothing comes into being or is destroyed; but all is an aggregation or secretion of pre-existent things: so that all-becoming might more correctly be called becoming-mixed, and all corruption, becoming-separate.”
quoted in Heinrich Ritter , Tr. from German by Alexander James William Morrison, The History of Ancient Philosophy , Vol.1 (1838) -
“All things were together, infinite both in number and in smallness; for the small too was infinite.”
Frag. B 1, quoted in John Burnet 's Early Greek Philosophy , (1920), Chapter 6. -
“Frag. B 1, quoted in John Burnet 's Early Greek Philosophy , (1920), Chapter 6.”
All things were together, infinite both in number and in smallness; for the small too was infinite. -
“And since these things are so, we must suppose that there are contained many things and of all sorts in the things that are uniting, seeds of all things, with all sorts of shapes and colours and savours”
Frag. B 4, quoted in John Burnet 's Early Greek Philosophy , (1920), Chapter 6. -
“Frag. B 4, quoted in John Burnet 's Early Greek Philosophy , (1920), Chapter 6.”
And since these things are so, we must suppose that there are contained many things and of all sorts in the things that are uniting, seeds of all things, with all sorts of shapes and colours and savours -
“Frag. B 12, quoted in John Burnet 's Early Greek Philosophy , (1920), Chapter 6.”
Mind is infinite and self-ruled, and is mixed with nothing, but is alone itself by itself. -
“Frag. B12, in Jonathan Barnes, Early Greek Philosophy (1984), p. 190.”
Thought is something limitless and independent, and has been mixed with no thing but is alone by itself. ... What was mingled with it would have prevented it from having power over anything in the way in which it does. ... For it is the finest of all things and the purest.