Yes, and if oxen and horses or lions had hands, and could paint with their hands, and produce works of art as men do, horses would paint the forms of the gods like horses, and oxen like oxen, and make their bodies in the image of their several kinds.
Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570 – c. 479 BC) Greek philosopher, poet
Fragments, (Silloi/Satires) fr. 15 [tr. Burnet (1908)]
(Source)
Noted in Burnet as frag 15, RP 100. The original Greek can be seen here and here (I was unable to find a copyable version).
Other translations:But had the oxen or the lions hands,
Or could with hands depict a work like men,
Were beasts to draw the semblance of the gods,
The horses would them like to horses sketch,
To oxen, oxen, and their bodies make
Of such a shape as to themselves belongs.
[tr. Roberts/Donaldson (1885)]Yes, and if oxen or lions had hands, and could paint with their hands and produce works of art as men do, horses would paint the forms of the gods like horses, and oxen like oxen. Each would represent them with bodies according to the form of each.
[tr. Burnet (1892); frag 6 (RP 83)]But if cattle or lions had hands, so as to paint with their hands and produce works of art as men do, they would paint their gods and give them bodies in form hke their own — horses like horses, cattle like cattle. [tr. Fairbanks (1898)]But if horses or oxen or lions had hands
or could draw with their hands and accomplish such works as men,
horses would draw the figures of the gods as similar to horses, and the oxen as similar to oxen,
and they would make the bodies
of the sort which each of them had.
[tr. Lesher (1992); fr. 15; Clement 5.110]If oxen and horses and lions had hands and were able to draw with their hands and do the same things as men, horses would draw the shapes of gods to look like horses and oxen to look like oxen, and each would make the gods’ bodies have the same shape as they themselves had.
[tr. McKirahan (1995)]But if cattle[, horses,] or lions had hands,
or were to write/draw with hands and to complete deeds, such as men [do],
on the one hand, horses like horses and, on the other hand, cattle [like] cattle,
would draw [the] forms of [the] gods and would make bodies (σώµατ᾽)
of such sorts as [the] sort of bodily frame (δέµας) they themselves also have.
[Source; fr B15]
Quotations about:
anthropomorphism
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
PIETY, n. Reverence for the Supreme Being, based upon His supposed resemblance to man.
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?) American writer and journalist
“Piety,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
(Source)
See Voltaire.
Originally published in the "Cynic's Word Book" column in the New York American (1905-01-27) and the "Cynic's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Examiner (1905-02-05).
If animals could speak as fabulists have feigned, the dog would be a blunt, blundering, outspoken, honest fellow, but the cat would have the rare talent of never saying a word too much.
Philip Gilbert Hamerton (1834–1894) British artist, art critic and author.
Chapters on Animals, ch. 4 “Cats” (1877)
(Source)
A variant of this shows up in Agnes Repplier, The Cat (1912):If animals could speak, the dog would be a blunt, blundering, outspoken, honest fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.
This in turn seems to have been further reduced and misattributed to Mark Twain:If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.
You wanted God’s ideas about what was best for you to coincide with your ideas, but you also wanted him to be the almighty Creator of heaven and earth so that he could properly fulfill your wish. And yet, if he were to share your ideas, he would cease to be the almighty Father.
Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher, theologian
Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses (1843) [tr. Hong]
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own — a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism. It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive, and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in nature.
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-American physicist
“What I Believe,” Forum and Century (Oct 1930)
(Source)
Einstein crafted and recrafted his credo multiple times in this period, and specifics are often muddled by differing translations and by his reuse of certain phrases in later writing. The Forum and Century entry appears to be the earliest. Some important variants:I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither ca I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with they mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the reason that manifests itself in nature.
— "The World As I See It [Mein Weltbild] [tr. Bargmann (1954)]I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves. An individual who should survive his physical death is also beyond my comprehension, nor do I wish it otherwise; such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls. Enough for me the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvellous structure of reality, together with the single-hearted endeavor to comprehend a portion, be it never so tiny, of the reason that manifests itself in nature.
— "The World As I See It [Mein Weltbild] [tr. Harris (1934)]To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all there is.
[Es ist mir genug, diese Geheimnisse staunend zu ahnen und zu versuchen, von der erhabenen Struktur des Seienden in Demut ein mattes Abbild geistig zu erfassen.]
— Reduced variant in "My Credo Mein Glaubensbekenntnis]" (Aug 1932)
My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the Universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image to be servants of their own human interests.
George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American poet and philosopher [Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruíz de Santayana y Borrás]
Soliloquies in England, “On My Friendly Critics,” (1922)
