Zeno of Elea
Famous for his paradoxes, which challenged the concepts of motion and plurality.
Most quoted
"If it is, each thing must have some magnitude and thickness, and part of it must be apart from the rest. And the same reasoning holds concerning the part which is in front. For that too will have magnitude and part of it will be in front. Now it is the same thing to say this once and to say it always. For no such part of it will be last, nor will there be one part not related to another. Therefore, if there are many things, they must be both small and large; so small as to have no magnitude, so large as to be infinite."
— from Paradoxes of Plurality
"If Being is divided, it is either divided into beings or into non-beings. But it cannot be divided into non-beings, for non-beings are nothing. And if into beings, then each of these beings is further divisible, and so on forever. So Being is infinitely divisible and thus has no ultimate parts."
— from Arguments against plurality
"If things are many, they must be just as many as they are, no more and no less. And if they are just as many as they are, they must be finite. But if things are many, they are infinite; for between things that are there are always others, and between those yet others. So things are infinite."
— from Paradoxes of Plurality
All quotes by Zeno of Elea (155)
In the stadium of thought, speeds deceive.
The arrow's flight is a myth of motion.
Halfway points multiply endlessly.
Parmenides' truth defended by dialectic.
Existence is whole, complete, and uniform.
To deny motion is to affirm reality.
The many collapse into contradiction.
Logic's sharp edge cuts through illusion.
No beginning to the end of journey.
Rest is the true state of all things.
Infinite halves sum to nothing.
The one endures without alteration.
Senses lie; intellect discerns truth.
Paradoxes guard the gates of philosophy.
What is, is; what is not, is not.
Change is but appearance.
The whole is equal to the parts in being.
To move is to never arrive.
Unity prevails over division.
The path divides infinitely, yet is finite.
Contemporaries of Zeno of Elea
Other Philosophys born within 50 years of Zeno of Elea (-490–-430).