Empedocles Quotes on Knowledge
Empedocles of Acragas (c. 494 – c. 434 BC), the pre-Socratic physician-poet whose hexameter fragments of On Nature and the Purifications survive in extended quotations in Aristotle, Simplicius, and the doxographers, gave Greek thought one of its founding accounts of the cognitive grasp of the natural world. The doctrine of the four roots (earth, water, air, fire) combined and separated by Love and Strife supplies the ontological framework, and the corresponding epistemological principle — that like is known by like (B109), since the earth in us recognizes the earth without and so for each of the roots — frames one of the earliest extant theories of perception in the Western tradition.
Quotes
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Attributed to Empedocles:
“Hold fast to these things in your eager mind, and you will see them all clearly.”
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“τέσσαρα γὰρ πάντων ῥιζώματα πρῶτον ἄκουε· Ζεὺς ἀργὴς Ἥρη τε φερέσβιος ἠδ’ Ἀιδωνεύς Νῆστίς θ’, ἥ δακρύοις τέγγει κρούνωμα βρότειον.”
Hear first the four roots of all things: shining Zeus, life-bringing Hera, Aidoneus, [ 2 ] and Nestis, [ 3 ] who wets with tears the mortal wellspring. | fr. 6 -
“ἄλλο δέ τοι ἐρέω· φύσις οὐδενός ἐστιν ἁπάντων θνητῶν, οὐδέ τις οὐλομένου θανάτοιο τελευτή, ἀλλὰ μόνον μίξις τε διάλλαξίς τε μιγέντων ἐστί, φύσις δ’ἐπὶ τοῖς ὀνομάζεται ἀνθρώποισιν.”
And I will tell you something else: there is no birth of all mortal things, nor any end in wretched death, but only a mixing and dissolution of mixtures ; 'birth' is so called on the part of mankind. | fr. 8 -
“οἱ δ᾿ ὅτε μὲν κατὰ φῶτα μιγέντ᾿ εἰς αἰθέρ᾿ ἵ⟨κωνται⟩ ἢ κατὰ θηρῶν ἀγροτέρων γένος ἢ κατὰ θάμνων ἠὲ κατ᾿ οἰωνῶν, τότε μὲν τὸ ⟨λέγουσι⟩ γενέσθαι, εὖτε δ᾿ ἀποκρινθῶσι, τὸ δ᾿ αὖ δυσδαίμονα πότμον· ἥ θέμις ⟨οὐ⟩ καλέουσι, νόμωι δ᾿ ἐπίφημι καὶ αὐτός.”
But, when the elements have been mingled in the fashion of a man and come to the light of day, or in the fashion of the race of wild beasts or plants or birds, then men say that these come into being; and when they are separated, they call that woeful death . They call it not aright; but I too follow the custom, and call it so myself. | fr. 9 As quoted by John Burnet , Early Greek philosophy (1908 -
“fr. 9 As quoted by John Burnet , Early Greek philosophy (1908) p. 240”
οἱ δ᾿ ὅτε μὲν κατὰ φῶτα μιγέντ᾿ εἰς αἰθέρ᾿ ἵ⟨κωνται⟩ ἢ κατὰ θηρῶν ἀγροτέρων γένος ἢ κατὰ θάμνων ἠὲ κατ᾿ οἰωνῶν, τότε μὲν τὸ ⟨λέγουσι⟩ γενέσθαι, εὖτε δ᾿ ἀποκρινθῶσι, τὸ δ᾿ αὖ δυσδαίμονα πότμον· ἥ θέμις ⟨οὐ⟩ καλέουσι, νόμωι δ᾿ ἐπίφημι καὶ αὐτός. -
“νήπιοι· οὐ γάρ σφιν δολιχόφρονές εἰσι μέριμναι, οἵ δὴ γίγνεσθαι πάρος οὐκ ἐὸν ἐλπίζουσιν ἤ τι καταθνήισκειν τε καὶ ἐξόλλυσθαι ἁπάντηι.”
Fools -- for their thoughts are not well-considered who suppose that not-being exists or that anything dies and is wholly annihilated. | fr. 11 -
“Fools -- for their thoughts are not well-considered who suppose that not-being exists or that anything dies and is wholly annihilated.”
νήπιοι· οὐ γάρ σφιν δολιχόφρονές εἰσι μέριμναι, οἵ δὴ γίγνεσθαι πάρος οὐκ ἐὸν ἐλπίζουσιν ἤ τι καταθνήισκειν τε καὶ ἐξόλλυσθαι ἁπάντηι. -
“οὐδέ τι τοῦ παντὸς κενεὸν πέλει οὐδὲ περισσόν.”
Nothing of the All is either empty or superfluous. | fr. 13 -
“Blessed is he who has acquired a wealth of divine wisdom , but miserable is he in whom there rests a dim opinion concerning the gods .”
Purifications | tr. Arthur Fairbanks -
“Fortunate is he who has acquired a wealth of divine understanding, but wretched the one whose interest lies in shadowy conjectures about divinities.”
Purifications