Empedocles

The universe is a sphere of unity and division.

True knowledge is divine and eternal.

For it is impossible for anything to come to be from what is not, and it cannot be brought about or heard of that what is should be utterly destroyed.

There is no coming to be of a mortal thing, nor any end in baneful death, but only mingling and separation of what has been mingled, and 'coming to be' is a name given to these by men.

I shall tell you a twofold tale. At one time they grew to be one alone out of many, at another they grew apart to be many out of one. Double is the birth of mortal things, and double their failing; for one is brought to birth and destroyed by the coming together of all things, the other is nurtured and flies apart as they grow apart again.

For all things are fitting and right and there is, as it were, a harmony among them.

But come, hear my words, for learning increases wisdom.

Fools! For they have no far-reaching thoughts, who imagine that what formerly was not comes into being, or that anything perishes and is utterly destroyed.

For from what does not exist at all it is impossible that anything come into being, and for Being to perish completely is incapable of fulfillment and unthinkable.

Love and Strife are the two forces that govern the universe.

By Love do they come together and form a single ordered whole.

And Strife, moving apart, separates them again.

These four roots of all things: hear first Zeus the gleaming, and Hera who gives life, and Aidoneus, and Nestis who with her tears moistens the mortal spring.

For all things are fire and water and earth and the boundless height of air, and baneful Strife apart from them, balanced in every way, and Love among them, equal in length and breadth.

For by now I have been born as boy and girl, bush, bird, and a mute fish from the sea.

There is an oracle of Necessity, an ancient decree of the gods, eternal, sealed with broad oaths: whenever one in error, from fear, pollutes his own limbs... he wanders for thrice ten thousand seasons away from the blessed ones.

I wept and wailed when I saw the unfamiliar land.

From what great honor and how great a height of bliss have I fallen to go about among mortals here on earth.

Blessed is he who has gained the riches of divine thoughts, wretched he who has a dim opinion about the gods.

It is not possible to bring God near within reach of our eyes, nor to grasp him with our hands, by which route the broadest road of Persuasion runs into the human mind.