| 530BCE | fragments/reports |
| p.35 | 1640 | The basic Eleatic belief was that all things are one | |
| Full Idea: The Eleatic tribe, which had its beginnings from Xenophanes and still earlier, proceed on the grounds that all things so-called are one. | |||
| From: report of Xenophanes (fragments/reports [c.530 BCE]) by Plato - The Sophist 242d |
| p.383 | 3055 | Xenophanes said the essence of God was spherical and utterly inhuman | |
| Full Idea: Xenophanes taught that the essence of God was of a spherical form, in no respect resembling man. | |||
| From: report of Xenophanes (fragments/reports [c.530 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 09.2.3 |
| B14 | p.22 | 407 | Mortals believe gods are born, and have voices and clothes just like mortals |
| Full Idea: Mortals believe the gods to be created by birth, and to have raiment, voice and body like mortals'. | |||
| From: Xenophanes (fragments/reports [c.530 BCE], B14), quoted by Clement - Miscellanies 5.109.2 |
| B16 | p.22 | 408 | Ethiopian gods have black hair, and Thracian gods have red hair |
| Full Idea: Ethiopians have gods with snub noses and black hair, Thracians have gods with grey eyes and red hair. | |||
| From: Xenophanes (fragments/reports [c.530 BCE], B16), quoted by Clement - Miscellanies 7.22.1 |
| B34 | p.24 | 411 | If we succeed in speaking the truth, we cannot know we have done it |
| 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. | |||
| From: Xenophanes (fragments/reports [c.530 BCE], B34), quoted by Sextus Empiricus - Against the Professors (six books) 7.49.4 |
| B38 | p.24 | 412 | If God had not created honey, men would say figs are sweeter |
| Full Idea: If God had not created yellow honey, men would say that figs were sweeter. | |||
| From: Xenophanes (fragments/reports [c.530 BCE], B38), quoted by Herodian - On Peculiar Speech 41.5 |