Pythagoras — "Don't piss towards the sun."
Don't piss towards the sun.
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More from Pythagoras
"A chewed bean placed in the sun smells of human semen or of murderously spilt human blood."
"The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself."
"Do nothing evil, neither in the presence of others, nor privately; But above all things respect yourself."
"Don't sit on a bushel."
"The oldest and shortest words, 'yes' and 'no,' are those which require the most thought."
About Pythagoras (c. 570-495 BCE)
Greek philosopher and mathematician whose school in Croton combined geometry (the Pythagorean theorem), number-mysticism, and a religious-vegetarian way of life. Closely associated with Thales of Miletus (earlier pre-Socratic and the first philosopher). For an intellectual contrast, see Heraclitus, pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of flux — Heraclitus called Pythagoras 'the chief of swindlers' — among the founding insults of the philosophical-rivalry tradition. Their 'all is flux' vs 'all is number' poles still organize the philosophy of mathematics today (Platonist vs anti-realist).
Details
A Pythagorean 'Symbol', possibly indicating respect for divine entities or practical hygiene.
Date: c. 570-495 BCE (interpreted later)
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Don't do something crude or disrespectful toward what is greater and sacred. Taken literally as a hygiene rule, it also encodes a broader principle: maintain dignity and reverence before powerful forces. Don't act with arrogance or crudeness toward things that command respect. Know what deserves reverence and don't debase yourself before it — hubris against the sacred invites consequences.
Relevance to Pythagoras
Pythagoras led a strict religious brotherhood governed by hundreds of ritual codes called akousmata — behavioral taboos covering diet, speech, and bodily conduct. He viewed celestial bodies as divine mathematical entities; the sun held sacred status in his cosmology. This saying reflects his fusion of practical discipline, religious piety, and cosmic reverence, hallmarks of a man who believed purifying behavior was inseparable from understanding the universe's mathematical order.
The era
In 6th-century BCE Greece, the sun was worshipped as the god Helios, and ritual purity was central to religious life. Pythagoreans lived in tightly governed communities in southern Italy where behavioral codes enforced collective purity. Bodily irreverence toward sacred things carried genuine religious weight, not mere social embarrassment. Separating philosophy from religion was unthinkable — cosmic observation, ritual conduct, and mathematical inquiry were unified disciplines in Pythagorean practice.
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