Parmenides Quotes
Parmenides of Elea was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of the late sixth and early fifth centuries BC, the founder of the Eleatic school and one of the most influential thinkers of the Pre-Socratic period. His one philosophical work, On Nature, surviving in roughly 150 fragments, is a hexameter poem in two parts: the Way of Truth, arguing that what is must be eternal, indivisible, unchanging, and one, and the Way of Opinion, an account of the deceptive world of mortal sense. The quotes below are attributed to Parmenides, organized by topic.
Browse Parmenides by topic
Parmenides on Knowledge
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“Frag B 1.28-30, quoted by Sextus Empiricus , Against the Mathematicians , vii. 3; Simplicius , Commentary on the Heavens , 557-8; Proclus , Commentary on the Timaeus I , 345”
You must learn all things, both the unshaken heart of persuasive truth , and the opinions of mortals in which there is no true warranty. -
“Frag. B 2.2-6, quoted by Proclus , Commentary on the Timaeus I , 345”
The only roads of enquiry there are to think of: one, that it is and that it is not possible for it not to be, this is the path of persuasion (for truth is its companion); the other, that it is not and that it must not be — this I say to you is a path wholly unknowable. -
“Frag. B 3, quoted by Plotinus , Enneads V, i.8”
For it is the same thing that can be thought and that can be. -
“It is indifferent to me where I am to begin , for there shall I return again.”
Frag. B 5, quoted by Proclus , Commentary on the Parmenides , 708 -
“Frag. B 5, quoted by Proclus , Commentary on the Parmenides , 708”
It is indifferent to me where I am to begin , for there shall I return again. -
“Frag. B 7.1-2, quoted by Plato , Sophist , 237a”
Never will this prevail, that the things that are not are — bar your thought from this road of inquiry.
Parmenides on Mind
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Attributed to Parmenides:
“It is the same thing to think and to be.”
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Attributed to Parmenides:
“Thinking and the thought that it is are the same.”
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“For it is the same thing that can be thought and that can be.”
Frag. B 3, quoted by Plotinus , Enneads V, i.8 -
“Never will this prevail, that the things that are not are — bar your thought from this road of inquiry.”
Frag. B 7.1-2, quoted by Plato , Sophist , 237a -
“Do not let habit, born from experience, force you along this road, directing aimless eye and echoing ear and tongue; but judge by reason the much contested proof which I have spoken.”
Frag. B 7.3-8.1, quoted by Sextus Empiricus , Against the Mathematicians , vii. 3
Parmenides on Nature
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Attributed to Parmenides:
“Coming into being is extinguished, and destruction is unknown.”
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Attributed to Parmenides:
“What is is uncreated and indestructible, whole, of one kind, and unmoving.”
Parmenides on Truth
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Attributed to Parmenides:
“What is, is; what is not, is not.”
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Attributed to Parmenides:
“It is necessary to speak and to think what is; for being is, but nothing is not.”
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“You must learn all things, both the unshaken heart of persuasive truth , and the opinions of mortals in which there is no true warranty.”
Frag B 1.28-30, quoted by Sextus Empiricus , Against the Mathematicians , vii. 3; Simplicius , Commentary on the Heavens , 557-8; Proclus , Commentary on the Timaeus I , 345 -
“The only roads of enquiry there are to think of: one, that it is and that it is not possible for it not to be, this is the path of persuasion (for truth is its companion); the other, that it is not and that it must not be — this I say to you is a path wholly unknowable.”
Frag. B 2.2-6, quoted by Proclus , Commentary on the Timaeus I , 345