Single Idea 411

[catalogued under 13. Knowledge Criteria / D. Scepticism / 1. Scepticism]

Full Idea

No man has seen certain truth, and no man will ever know about the gods and other things I mentioned; for if he succeeds in saying what is fully true, he himself is unaware of it; opinion is fixed by fate on all things.

Gist of Idea

If we succeed in speaking the truth, we cannot know we have done it

Source

Xenophanes (fragments/reports [c.530 BCE], B34), quoted by Sextus Empiricus - Against the Professors (six books) 7.49.4

Book Reference

'Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers', ed/tr. Freeman,Kathleen [Harvard 1957], p.24