One must be a sage to recognize a sage. - Xenophanes

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One must be a sage to recognize a sage.

Xenophanes

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About Xenophanes

Xenophanes of Colophon (Greek Ξενοφάνης ὁ Κολοφώνιος, Xenophánes; 570 – 480 BC) was a Greek philosopher, poet, and social and religious critic. Our knowledge of his views comes from his surviving poetry, all of which are fragments passed down as quotations by later Greek writers.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Native Name: Ξενοφάνης ὁ Κολοφώνιος

Alternative Names: Xenophanes of Colophon

All quotes from Xenophanes Similar Quotes by other Originators

Originators like Xenophanes:

Julian Heraclitus Hermes Trismegistus Homer Leonardo da Vinci

Additional quotes by Xenophanes

But if cattle and horses and lions had hands
or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do,
horses like horses and cattle like cattle
also would depict the gods' shapes and make their bodies
of such a sort as the form they themselves have.

One god there is, in no way like mortal creatures either in bodily form or in the thought of his mind. The whole of him sees, the whole of him thinks, the whole of him hears. He stays always motionless in the same place; it is not fitting that he should move about now this way, now that.

1
Man made his gods, and furnished them
with his own body, voice, and garments.

2
If a horse or lion or a slow ox
had agile hands for paint and sculpture,
the horse would make his god a horse,
the ox would sculpt an ox.

3
Our gods have flat noses and black skins
say the Ethiopians. The Thracians say
our gods have red hair and hazel eyes.