Anaximander
He proposed an infinite, undefined substance called the 'apeiron' as the origin of the cosmos and a geocentric model.
Quotes by Anaximander
Elements war and reconcile in the grand theater of the cosmos.
The Earth's stability is a gift of symmetry in the void.
From the boundless depths, the seeds of worlds are sown.
The apeiron is the first principle of things. It is eternal and ageless, and it encompasses all the worlds.
From what source things arise, to that they return of necessity when they are destroyed, 'for they suffer punishment and make reparation to one another for their injustice according to the ordering of time,' as he puts it in somewhat poetical terms.
The earth is a cylinder, whose depth is one-third of its width.
The first animals were born in moisture, enclosed in thorny barks, and when they grew older, they came out into the drier part and, after their bark broke off, lived a short time.
Man was born from animals of a different species, because other animals are soon self-supporting, and man alone needs a long period of nursing. For this reason, he would not have survived if he had been like this at the beginning.
The stars are wheels of fire, enclosed in air, and through certain openings, they show forth their flames.
The sun is a circle twenty-eight times the size of the earth, like a chariot wheel, having a hollow felloe full of fire, and showing this fire at a certain place through an opening, as through the nozzle of a bellows.
The moon is a circle nineteen times the size of the earth, like a chariot wheel, having a hollow felloe full of fire, and showing this fire at a certain place through an opening, as through the nozzle of a bellows.
The earth is suspended in the middle, held up by nothing, but remaining in place on account of its equal distance from all parts.
The apeiron is divine, for it is immortal and indestructible.
The apeiron is without beginning and end.
The apeiron is the source of all things, and into it all things return.
The apeiron is not water, nor any other of the so-called elements, but some other nature, indefinite, from which all the heavens and the worlds in them are generated.
The earth is like a stone pillar.
The first living creatures were generated in the moist element, enclosed in prickly cases.
The sea is the residue of the primeval moisture, which was evaporated by the sun.
Thunder and lightning are caused by the wind breaking out of a cloud.