Empedocles
He proposed that the universe is made of four elements (earth, air, fire, water) driven by the forces of Love and Strife.
Most quoted
"And as when painters decorate votive offerings, men who, having well learned the art, are skilled by their intelligence, they take many-colored pigments in their hands, and mix them in a harmony, more of some, less of others, and from them they produce forms like to all things, creating trees and men and women, and beasts and birds and water-nurtured fish, and long-lived gods, highest in honor, so too let not error deceive your mind, that there is any other source for the mortals that appear in countless numbers, but know this clearly, having heard the account."
— from On Nature
"There is an oracle of Necessity, an ancient decree of the gods, eternal, sealed fast with broad oaths: but when any one of the daimones, whose portion is length of life, lightens with sin, he straightway forfeits his wits, and for long ages they banish him from the blessed ones, and send him to wander, taking on every sort of mortal form that ever creepeth along the ground."
— from Purifications, -450
"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."
— from On Nature
All quotes by Empedocles (111)
This is manifest in the mass of mortal limbs: at one time, in the maturity of life, all the limbs that are the body's portion come together into one, through love; at another time again, torn asunder by evil strifes, they wander each separately by the breakers of the shore of life.
Thus, insofar as their nature is to change, they are always coming into being, and there is no fixed life for them; but insofar as they never cease from continuous interchange, they are always changeless in the cycle.
And these things never cease from continual shifting, at one time all coming together into one through Love, at another each being borne apart by the hatred of Strife.
Thus, in the sense of coming into being, they are not eternal, but in the sense of being imperishable, they are eternal.
For of a truth they (the elements) are, and, running through one another, they become different things at different times, and are ever continuously the same.
But when they are mixed in the form of a man or of a species of wild beasts or of plants or of birds, then men say that this is 'coming into being'; and when they are separated, they call this 'woeful fate'. They do what is customary, but I too assent to custom.
For there are just these things, and running through one another they become men and the tribes of other beasts, at one time coming together into one order by Love, at another again being borne apart by the hatred of Strife, until they grow together into one, the whole, and become subordinate.
Thus, in so far as they are wont to grow into one from many, and again become many as the one grows apart, thus far they come into being and have no stable life; but in so far as they never cease from continuous interchange, thus far they are always changeless in the cycle.
For it is equal from every side and quite without limit, a rounded sphere, rejoicing in its circular solitude.
But when great Strife had been nourished in its limbs and leapt up to claim its prerogatives as the time was being fulfilled, which is fixed for them in turn by a broad oath...
For all of them—sun and earth and sky and sea—are one with the parts of themselves that have been separated off and born in mortal things.
Contemporaries of Empedocles
Other Philosophys born within 50 years of Empedocles (-494–-434).