Anaximander

Cosmology Ancient Greek -610 – -546 401 quotes

He proposed an infinite, undefined substance called the 'apeiron' as the origin of the cosmos and a geocentric model.

Quotes by Anaximander

The stars are fixed in the heavens.

Fragment A20 (Aetius II 16.5) -580

The sun is a god.

Fragment A21 (Aetius II 20.1) -580

The moon is a goddess.

Fragment A21 (Aetius II 25.1) -580

The sea is a living entity.

Fragment A27 (Aetius III 16.1) -580

The boundless is the divine principle.

Fragment A15 (Simplicius, Physics 24.13) -580

The boundless is the origin of all things.

Fragment A9 (Theophrastus, Phys. Op. fr. 2) -580

The earth is a sphere.

Fragment A10 (Hippolytus, Ref. I 6.3) -580

The stars are other worlds.

Fragment A20 (Aetius II 13.7) -580

The sun is a star.

Fragment A21 (Aetius II 20.1) -580

The moon is a planet.

Fragment A21 (Aetius II 25.1) -580

From the boundless comes all things, and to the boundless they return.

On Nature -560

The Earth hangs free in the air, supported by nothing, for it is at rest in the center of the cosmos.

Fragment preserved by Simplicius -550

The apeiron is eternal and ageless, the source of all generation and destruction.

On Nature -610

Stars, sun, and moon are wheels of fire, eclipsed by rims that open and close.

Cosmological treatise -546

Whence they come into being is also whence they pass away, according to necessity; for they give justice and recompense to one another for their injustice according to the order of time.

Fragment DK 12 B1 -560

The cosmos is infinite, without beginning or end, governed by the eternal justice of the apeiron.

On Nature -585

All things arise from the one and the same principle, the unlimited, which is neither water nor air, but something other.

Philosophical notes -570

The Earth is a cylinder, three times as wide as it is deep, floating freely in space.

Cosmology fragment -555

Opposites are born from the mist produced by the eternal motion of the apeiron.

On Nature -600

The sun is a circle twenty-seven times the size of the Earth, encircled by a bellows of fire.

Astronomical description -540