Leucippus Quotes on Knowledge
Leucippus was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and the founder, with his pupil Democritus, of the atomist tradition. This page collects quotes attributed to Leucippus on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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“Book I, 1, 1 Incipit (tr. John J. Winkler)”
Sidon is a city beside the sea. The sea is the Assyrian; the city is the metropolis of Phoenicia; its people are the forefathers of Thebes . -
“Book I, 1, 3–13 (tr. S. Gaselee) This picture may be compared with the short description in Ovid , Metamorphoses , vi, 101 seq. : A Lydian maiden in her web did portray to the full How Europe was by royal Jove beguiled in shape of Bull. A swimming bull, a swelling sea, so lively had she wrought The lady seemed looking back to landward and to cry Upon her women, and to fear the water sprinkling high, And shrinking up her fearful feet. — Arthur Golding , The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso: Entituled, Metamorphosis (1567)”
I saw a picture hanging up which was a landscape and a seascape in one. The painting was of Europa : the sea depicted was the Phoenician Ocean; the land, Sidon. On the land part was a meadow and a troop of girls: in the sea a bull was swimming, and on his back sat a beautiful maiden, borne by the bull towards Crete. The meadow was thick with all kinds of flowers, and among them was planted a thick -
“Book I, 4 (tr. John J. Winkler); Winkler's translation quoted in Gina Welborn, The Heiress's Courtship (2014), p. 25”
As soon as I had seen her, I was lost. For Beauty’s wound is sharper than any weapon’s, and it runs through the eyes down to the soul. It is through the eye that love’s wound passes, and I now became a prey to a host of emotions: admiration, amazement, trembling, shame, shamelessness. I admired her generous stature, marveled at her beauty, trembled in my heart, stared shamelessly, ashamed I might -
“Book I, 15 (tr. S. Gaselee); quoted in Liz James, Light and Colour in Byzantine Art (Oxford, 1996), Ch. 4, p. 88”
Birds there were too: some, tame, sought for food in the grove, pampered and domesticated by the rearing of men; others, wild and on the wing, sported around the summits of the trees; some chirping their birds’ songs, others brilliant in their gorgeous plumage. The songsters were grasshoppers and swallows: the former sang of Aurora’s marriage-bed, the latter of the banquet of Tereus. There were ta -
“Annibale della Croce (Lyons, 1544) — last four books, into Latin”
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“L. Dolce (Venice, 1546) — into Italian”
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“Angelo Coccio (Venice, 1550) — into Italian”
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“F. de Belleforest (Paris, 1568) — into French”
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