Tao Te Ching
Protagoras
490 – 420 BCE
“The wisest man alive”—Socrates
Born poor and laboring as a porter, Protagoras was called by Socrates “the wisest man alive” and became a friend of Pericles, so respected that Plato wrote a book about him, and a philosopher so original that he started a thought revolution in ancient Greece with his theory of relativism. This led to an agnosticism that furthered science but aroused enough anger to expel him from Athens and have all copies of his books burned in the marketplace. His still famous statement that "Man is the measure of all things” continues his influence and his saying, “There are two sides to every question” has become a truism and idiom in most languages.
Lineages
Apostles of Doubt Greek Skeptic
Eras
Western
Egyptian Civilization (3150 – 305 BCE)Greek Civilization (480 – 146 BCE)
The Axial Age, “The Great Leap of Being” (800 – 200 BCE)
Unlisted Sources
Quotes by Protagoras (7 quotes)
“Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not, nor of what sort they may be, because of the obscurity of the subject, and the brevity of human life.”
Chapters:
65. Simplicity: the Hidden Power of Goodness
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“Man is the measure of all things: of the things that are, that they are, of the things that are not, that they are not.”
Chapters:
21. Following Empty Heart
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“No intelligent man believes that anybody ever willing errs or willingly does base and evil deeds.”
Chapters:
62. Basic Goodness
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“The community which has neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblest principles.”
Chapters:
44. Fame and Fortune
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“As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other.”
from Golden Verses of Pythagoras Χρύσεα
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“About the gods I have no means of knowing either that they exist or that they do not exist or what they might look like. Many things prevent my knowing like the fact that they are never seen.”
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