Thales Quotes

#1. I did not become a father because I am fond of children.

Thales

#2. Placing your stick at the end of the shadow of the pyramid, you made by the sun's rays two triangles, and so proved that the pyramid [height] was to the stick [height] as the shadow of the pyramid to the shadow of the stick.

Thales

#3. The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.

Thales

#4. Nothing is more active than thought, for it travels over the universe, and nothing is stronger than necessity for all must submit to it.

Thales

#5. God is the most ancient of all things, for he had no birth.

Thales

#6. A multitude of words is no proof of a prudent mind.

Thales

#7. Many words are not proof of the wise man, because the sage only talk when it's needed, and the words are measured and corresponding with the need.

Thales

#8. All things are from water and all things are resolved into water.

Thales

#9. Take Time by the forelock.

Thales

#10. [One] who is healthy in body, resourceful in soul and of a readily teachable nature.

Thales

#11. Hope is the only good that is common to all men; those who have nothing else possess hope still.

Thales

#12. Place is the greatest thing, as it contains all things.

Thales

#13. Who is happy? This is a person, who has a healthy body, is dowered with peace of mind and cultivates his talents.

Thales

#14. Suretyship (Dogma) is the precursor of ruin.

Thales

#15. Time is the wisest of all things that are; for it brings everything to light.

Thales

#16. What man is happy? He who has a healthy body, a resourceful mind, and a docile nature.

Thales

#17. I will be sufficiently rewarded if when telling it to others you will not claim the discovery as your own, but will say it was mine.

Thales

#18. Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing.

Thales

#19. If there is neither excessive wealth nor immoderate poverty in a nation, then justice may be said to prevail.

Thales

#20. Hope is the most universal of human possessions.

Thales

#21. If there is a change, there must be some thing that changes, yet does not change

Thales

#22. Necessity is the strongest of things, for it rules everything.

Thales

#23. Intellect is the swiftest of things, for it runs through everything.

Thales

#24. We live not, in reality, on the summit of a solid earth but at the bottom of an ocean of air

Thales

#25. The past is certain, the future obscure.

Thales

#26. As brightness is to rustiness, so labor excelleth idleness.

Thales

#27. There are three attributes for which I am grateful to Fortune: that I was born, first, human and not animal; second, man and not woman; and third, Greek and not barbarian.

Thales