Xenophanes

“But mortals suppose that gods are born, wear their own clothes and have a voice and body.”

“Homer and Hesiod have attributed to the gods all sorts of things that are matters of reproach and censure among men: theft, adultery, and mutual deception.”

“The Ethiopians say that their gods are flat-nosed and black, while the Thracians say that theirs have blue eyes and red hair.”

“But if cattle and horses and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and create works of art like men, horses would paint the forms of the gods like horses, and cattle like cattle.”

“We all have our origin from earth and water.”

“There is one god, greatest among gods and men, who is like mortals neither in body nor in thought.”

“He sees as a whole, thinks as a whole, and hears as a whole.”

“The gods did not reveal, from the beginning, all things to us, but in the course of time, through seeking, men find that which is better.”

“If god had not made brown honey, men would think figs far sweeter.”

“Let these be accepted as conjectures, similar to the truth.”

“And as for certain truth, no man has seen it, nor will there ever be a man who knows about the gods and about all the things I mention.”

“For if he should happen to state the whole truth, he himself would not know it; for all is but a woven web of guesses.”

“Everything comes from earth and everything ends in earth.”

“Without effort he shakes all things by the thought of his mind.”

“The rainbow, she whom they call Iris, is also a cloud, purple, red, and greenish-yellow to behold.”