Anaximander 610 BC – 546 BC

Anaximander was a Greek philosopher of Miletus, a pupil and successor of Thales, born around 610 BC. He is the first known thinker to have written a work of natural philosophy in prose and the first to propose a non-mythological account of the origin of the cosmos. He held that the source of all things is the apeiron, an indefinite and limitless principle from which the opposites separate. Anaximander also produced one of the earliest maps of the world and speculated that life originated in the sea. Only a single sentence of his work survives, but his influence on the development of Greek philosophy is profound.

Key facts

Nationality: Greek
Era: Ancient
Movements: Pre-Socratic, Ancient Greek

Selected quotes

Attributed to Anaximander:

“The first principle of things that are is the boundless.”
Attributed to Anaximander:

“Whence things have their origin, thence also their destruction happens, according to necessity; for they give to each other justice and recompense for their injustice in conformity with the ordinance of Time.”
Attributed to Anaximander:

“The earth is cylindrical in shape, and its depth is a third of its breadth.”
Attributed to Anaximander:

“The first living creatures were born in moisture, enclosed in thorny barks; and as their age increased, they came forth upon the drier part.”
Attributed to Anaximander:

“There are innumerable worlds, which are gods.”