The 13 best famous phrases of Anaxagoras

Anaxagoras (500 a. C. - 428 a. C.), also known as Anaxagoras of Clazomene, is one of the most recognized pre-Socratic philosophers. He was born in Clazómenas, in present-day Turkey, although he lived his best years in Athens.

Among his outstanding disciples we find Pericles, Protagoras and Thucydides, the playwright Euripides and it is suspected that he could also count among his students with Socrates and Democritus.

Anaxagoras was the first thinker who spoke about the notion of "nous" (mind, thought) as an axial concept in his work. The only book from which fragments have been preserved is the famous "On Nature".

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Great phrases of Anaxagoras of Clazomene

In today's article we are going to discover the best phrases of Anaxagoras and his famous quotes, which will allow us to delve into the work of one of the most undervalued Greek philosophers.

1. If you cheat on me once, it's your fault; if you fool me two, it's mine.

Perhaps, the phrase of Anaxagoras that has reached us the most. Certainly, being fooled twice by the same person is not having taken the appropriate measures.

2. Science damages those who do not know how to use it as much as it is useful to others.

There are people who do not understand the true meaning of scientific method.

3. The man is smart because he has hands.

Our abilities are caused by the ability to manipulate and build increasingly complex objects.

4. Intelligence knows all things and ordered all the things that are going to be and what were and what are now and what are not.

One of those phrases about intelligence that links it to the creative gift.

5. All things participate in everything, while intelligence is infinite and governs itself and is not mixed with anything.

A proof of his philosophical monism.

6. The spirit governs the universe.

An essentialist phrase.

7. Intelligence is the purest of all things. He has a total knowledge of everything and is the maximum force.

Another famous quote from Anaxagoras on knowledge.

8. Nothing is born and nothing perishes. Life is an aggregation, death a separation.

Reflection on the animate.

9. When the voice of an enemy accuses, the silence of a friend condemns.

On friendship and betrayal, in one of the most reproduced Anaxagoras phrases.

10. Movement defines what is alive.

Dynamism and its qualities, according to the Greek thinker.

11. Everything has a natural explanation. The moon is not a god, but a great rock and the sun, a hot rock.

One of the astronomical principles of which Anaxagoras theorized.

12. Appearances are a vision of the occult.

Intuition leads us to love or hate people we hardly know.

13. Men would live incredibly calm if these two words, mine and yours, were removed.

The notion of private property is one of the biggest causes of unrest and greed.