Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Protagoras

Quote by Protagoras

“Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or that they do not exist, nor what sort of form they may have; there are many reasons why knowledge on this subject is not possible, owing to the lack of evidence and the shortness of human life.”

Quote by Protagoras

Create image

Author

Protagoras
Protagoras

Protagoras was a renowned Greek philosopher born in 490 BC and died in 420 BC. He is considered a pioneer of relativism and is famous for his famous maxim, 'Man is the measure of all things.' His thoughts had a profound impact on subsequent philosophy, especially in the fields of ethics and epistemology. more

You May Also Like

“Every improvement that is put upon the real estate is the result of an idea in somebody's head. The skyscraper is another idea; the railroad is another; the telephone and all those things are merely symbols which represent ideas. An andiron, a wash-tub, is the result of an idea that did not exist before.”

IdeasRealScienceResultsExistenceImprovementInventionSymbolsEstatesTelephonesRailroadsSkyscraperTubs
Book:Mark Twain's Speeches
Create image

“Human behaviour reveals uniformities which constitute natural laws. If these uniformities did not exist, then there would be neither social science nor political economy, and even the study of history would largely be useless. In effect, if the future actions of men having nothing in common with their past actions, our knowledge of them, although possibly satisfying our curiosity by way of an interesting story, would be entirely useless to us as a guide in life.”

IfsMenWayHumansStoriesWould BeActionPastLawSciencePoliticalSocialNaturalInterestingCommonExistenceKnowledgeHistoryEconomyStudyEffectsCuriosityGuidesUselessSatisfyingBehaviourNatural LawUniformitySocial SciencePolitical EconomyHuman BehaviourInteresting Stories
Author:Vilfredo Pareto
Create image

“If all sentient beings in the universe disappeared, there would remain a sense in which mathematical objects and theorems would continue to exist even though there would be no one around to write or talk about them. Huge prime numbers would continue to be prime, even if no one had proved them prime.”

IfsWritingWould BeScienceUniverseNumbersExistenceObjectsHugeMathematicalPrimeTheoremsSentient BeingsPrime Numbers
Book:When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish: And Other Speculations About This and That
Create image

“In the heavens we discover [stars] by their light, and by their light alone ... the sole evidence of the existence of these distant worlds ... that each of them is built up of molecules of the same kinds we find on earth. A molecule of hydrogen, for example, whether in Sirius or in Arcturus, executes its vibrations in precisely the same time. Each molecule therefore throughout the universe bears impressed upon it the stamp of a metric system as distinctly as does the metre of the Archives at Paris, or the royal cubit of the Temple of Karnac.”

WorldKindDoeLightEarthScienceUniverseHeavenStarsExistenceExampleBearsEvidenceBuiltParisTemplesSoleImpressedRoyalStampsVibrationsMoleculesHydrogenArchivesMetricsSiriusMetric System
Author:James Clerk Maxwell
Create image

“Know thyself! This is the source of all wisdom, said the great thinkers of the past, and the sentence was written in golden letters on the temple of the gods. To know himself, Linnæus declared to be the essential indisputable distinction of man above all other creatures. I know, indeed, in study nothing more worthy of free and thoughtful man than the study of himself. For if we look for the purpose of our existence, we cannot possibly find it outside ourselves. We are here for our own sake.”

IfsKnowsMenLooksSaidPastSciencePurposeExistenceStudyWrittenSourceCreaturesEssentialsLettersSakeWorthySentencesGoldenThoughtfulDistinctionTemplesThinkerThyselfKnow ThyselfGreat Thinkers
Author:Karl Ernst von Baer
Create image