Anaxagoras Quotes (-500--428)

“My dear Meletus, do you think you are prosecuting Anaxagoras? Are you so contemptuous of these men and think them so ignorant of letters as not to know that the books of Anaxagoras of Clazomenae are full of those theories, and further, that the young men learn from me what they can buy from time to time for a drachma, at most, in the bookshops, and ridicule Socrates if he pretends that these theories are his own, especially as they are so absurd? Is that, by Zeus, what you think of me, Meletus, that I do not believe that there are any gods?—That is what I say, that you do not believe in the gods at all.”

“Anaxagoras held that everything is infinitely divisible, and that even the smallest portion of matter contains some of each element. Things appear to be that of which they contain the most. Thus, for example, everything contains some fire, but we only call it fire if that element preponderates. He argues against the void, saying that the clepsydra or an inflated skin shows that there is air where there seems to be nothing.”

“Anaxagoras was more inclined to the study of physics than of metaphysics, for which reason he is accused by Plato and by Aristotle of not having conceded enough to final causes, and of having converted God into a machine. Accordingly he explained on physical principles the formation of plants and animals, and even celestial phenomena; which drew upon him the charge of atheism. Nevertheless, he regarded the testimony of the senses as subjectively true; but as insufficient to attain to objective truth, which was the privilege of the reason.”

“Anaxagoras says that perception is produced by opposites; for like things cannot be affected by like. ...It is in the same way that touch and taste discern their objects. That which is just as warm or just as cold as we are neither warms us nor cools us... [I]n the same way, we do not apprehend the sweet and the sour by means of themselves. We know cold by warm, fresh by salt, and sweet by sour, in virtue of our deficiency in each; for all these are in us to begin with. And we smell and hear in the same... And all sensation implies pain... for all unlike things produce pain by their contact. Brilliant colours and excessive noises produce pain... The larger animals are the more sensitive, and... sensation is proportionate to the size of the organs of sense. ...Rarefied air has more smell ... when air is heated and rarefied, it smells. ...[S]mell is better perceived when it is near than when it is far by reason of its being more condensed, while when dispersed it is weak.”

“[W]e may assume [Anaxagoras] belonged to a family which had won distinction in the State. Nor need we reject the tradition that Anaxagoras neglected his possessions to follow science. ...[I]n the fourth century he was... regarded as the type of the man who leads the "theoretic life."”

“Diogenes includes Anaxagoras in... philosophers who left... a single book, and... preserved the... criticism... that it was written "in a lofty and agreeable style." ...[F]rom the ...Apology ...the works of Anaxagoras could be bought at Athens for a single drachma; and ...was of some length ...[as] Plato ...speak[s] of it. ...Simplicius had ...a copy, ...and it is to him we owe the preservation of all our fragments, with ...[a few] doubtful exceptions. Unfortunately his quotations seem... confined to the First Book... dealing with general principles, so... we are... in the dark with regard to... details. This is... unfortunate, as... Anaxagoras... first gave the true theory of the moon’s light and... the true theory of eclipses.”