Anaxagoras Quotes on Mind
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 mind, 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:
“Mind alone is unmixed and pure, and rules over all things.”
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“Mind is infinite and self-ruled, and is mixed with nothing, but is alone itself by itself.”
Frag. B 12, quoted in John Burnet 's Early Greek Philosophy , (1920), Chapter 6. -
“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.”
Frag. B12, in Jonathan Barnes, Early Greek Philosophy (1984), p. 190.