Xenophanes: Quotes about God

Xenophanes was Presocratic philosopher. Explore interesting quotes on god.

Xenophanes: 10 quotes0 likes

“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.”

Fragment 15 (D-K)

“Ethiopians say that their gods are snubnosed and black
Thracians that they are pale and red-haired.”

Fragment 16 (D-K)

“Mortals deem that the gods are begotten as they are,
and have clothes like theirs, and voice and form.”

Diels-Kranz (D-K), fragment 14

“There is one god, greatest among gods and men, similar to mortals neither in shape nor in thought.”

Fragment 23, as quoted in Notes on Greek Philosophy by Anthony Preus (Global Academic Publishing, 1996), p. 10