'Everyman is convinced of the one thing he happened by chance to learn.'
'Everyman is convinced of the one thing he happened by chance to learn.'
Empedocles of Acragas, On Nature. Paraphrased by Eliot Weinberger An Elemental Thing
and the longer translation in William Ellery Leonard's The Fragments of Empedocles
"For narrow through their members scattered ways
Of knowing lie. And many a vile surprise
Blunts soul and keen desire. And having viewed
Their little share of life, with briefest fates,
Like smoke they are lifted up and flit away,
Believing only what each chances on,
Hither and thither driven; yet they boast
The larger vision of the whole and all.
But thuswise never shall these things be seen,
Never be heard by men, nor seized by mind;
And thou, since hither now withdrawn apart,
Shalt learn — no more than mortal ken may span."