1001Philosophers

Eudemus of Rhodes Quotes on Knowledge

Eudemus of Rhodes was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher of the fourth century BC, a senior pupil of Aristotle who, on Aristotle's death, was passed over in the succession to Theophrastus and returned to Rhodes, where he founded a Peripatetic school of his own. This page collects quotes attributed to Eudemus of Rhodes on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.

Quotes

  • Attributed to Eudemus of Rhodes:

    “He who would understand a science must first know the labor by which its truths were first won.”

  • Attributed to Eudemus of Rhodes:

    “The history of mathematics is one of the histories of the human mind.”

  • Attributed to Eudemus of Rhodes:

    “Aristotle taught me to see; my work is to record what I have seen.”

  • Attributed to Eudemus of Rhodes:

    “Where the master left a thread, the pupil's task is to weave it into the fabric.”

  • Attributed to Eudemus of Rhodes:

    “What is forgotten of the past discoveries is not lost forever; it is only mislaid until a careful hand recovers it.”