Anaxagoras Quotes

• Appearances are a glimpse of the unseen.

  Anaxagoras

  Unseen, Glimpse, Appearance

  102 Copy quote

• Conclusions from observations are unreliable, only the mind can come nearer to to the truth. Thus, in some ways, philosophy is more important than science.

  Anaxagoras

  Philosophy, Mind, Important

  39 Copy quote

• All other things have a portion of everything, but Mind is infinite and self-ruled, and is mixed with nothing but is all alone by itself.

  Anaxagoras

  Science, Self, Mind

  79 Copy quote

• There is no smallest among the small and no largest among the large, but always something still smaller and something still larger.

  Anaxagoras

  Mathematics, Smallest, Stills

  74 Copy quote

• Men would live exceedingly quiet if these two words, mine and thine, were taken away.

  Anaxagoras

  Taken, Men, Two

  80 Copy quote

• Appearances are but a glimpse of what is hidden.

  Anaxagoras

  Glimpse, Appearance

  55 Copy quote

• Everything has a natural explanation. The moon is not a god but a great rock and the sun a hot rock.

  Anaxagoras

  God, Moon, Rocks

  58 Copy quote

• In everything, there is a share of everything

  Anaxagoras

  Philosophical, Share

  Anaxagoras, Patricia Curd (2007). “Anaxagoras of Clazomenae: Fragments and Testimonia : a Text and Translation with Notes and Essays”, p.54, University of Toronto Press

  41 Copy quote

• The purpose of life is the investigation of the Sun, the Moon, and the heavens.

  Anaxagoras

  Science, Moon, Space

  55 Copy quote

• The sun provides the moon with its brightness.

  Anaxagoras

  Moon, Brightness, Sun

  Fragment in Plutarch De facie in or be lunae, 929b.

  33 Copy quote

• The Greeks are wrong to recognize coming into being and perishing; for nothing comes into being nor perishes, but is rather compounded or dissolved from things that are. So they would be right to call coming into being composition and perishing dissolution.

  Anaxagoras

  Life, Science, Greek

  47 Copy quote

• All things were together, infinite both in number and in smallness; for the small too was infinite.

  Anaxagoras

  Numbers, Together, Infinite

  "Early Greek Philosophy" by John Burnet, (Ch. 6), 1920.

  32 Copy quote

• It is not I who have lost the Athenians, but the Athenians who have lost me.

  Anaxagoras

  Lost, Lost Me, Athenians

  30 Copy quote

• The descent to Hades is the same from every place.

  Anaxagoras

  Death, Suicide, Descent

  "The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers" by Diogenes Laërtius, (Book 2: Socrates, his predecessors and followers), c. 200 A.D..

  27 Copy quote

• The Greeks do not think correctly about coming-to-be and passing-away; for no thing comes to be or passes away, but is mixed together and dissociated from the things that are. And thus they would be correct to call coming-to-be mixing-together and passing-away dissociating

  Anaxagoras

  Thinking, Greek, Passing Away

  Anaxagoras, Patricia Curd (2007). “Anaxagoras of Clazomenae: Fragments and Testimonia : a Text and Translation with Notes and Essays”, p.72, University of Toronto Press

  36 Copy quote

• The Sun is a mass of fiery stone, a little larger than Greece.

  Anaxagoras

  Science, Stones, Littles

  30 Copy quote

• The descent into Hades is much the same from whatever place we start.

  Anaxagoras

  Death, Dying, Descent

  20 Copy quote

• Neither is there a smallest part of what is small, but there is always a smaller (for it is impossible that what is should cease to be). Likewise there is always something larger than what is large.

  Anaxagoras

  Science, Atoms, Impossible

  28 Copy quote

• Wrongly do the Greeks suppose that aught begins or ceases to be; for nothing comes into being or is destroyed; but all is an aggregation or secretion of preexisting things; so that all becoming might more correctly be called becoming mixed, and all corruption, becoming separate.

  Anaxagoras

  Greek, Might, Becoming

  "The History of Ancient Philosophy". Book by Heinrich Ritter, translared by Alexander James William Morrison, Volume 1, 1838.

  19 Copy quote

• And since the portions of the great and the small are equal in number, so too all things would be in everything. Nor is it possible that they should exist apart, but all things have a portion of everything.

  Anaxagoras

  Science, Numbers, Would Be

  17 Copy quote

• The forces of rotation caused red hot masses of stones to be torn away from the Earth and to be thrown into the ether, and this is the origin of the stars.

  Anaxagoras

  Stars, Science, Hot

  16 Copy quote

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