Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

to the Milesians, as we have already said above, the response was given that it should be bestowed upon the man who was first in wisdom of all. But enough of these matters. Hermippus, however, in his Lives, relates concerning him what is said by some about Socrates. For he says that he would say he gave thanks to Fortune for three things: first, that he was a human being and not a beast; second, that he was a man and not a woman; third, that he was born a Greek and not a barbarian. It is reported that when he was going out from his house for the purpose of observing the stars, he fell into a ditch, and a domestic old woman said to him with petulant mockery: A. 21. "How, O Thales, do you expect to grasp the things in the heavens, when you are not able to see those things which are before your eyes?" That he was indeed a student of astronomy, Timon also saw, who praises him in the Silli when he says:

Θαλῆτα from Θαλῆς for Θαλῆς makes the genitive Θαλῆ with a circumflex.

"Such was Thales, wise in his astronomical lore." that is,
Such was Thales, skilled in wisdom and the heavens.

Furthermore, Lobon of Argos is the authority that the things written by him amount to two hundred verses, and that these verses were inscribed upon his image:

"Miletus, the Ionian city, nurtured and brought forth this Thales,
An astrologer, the most ancient of all in wisdom." that is,
This Thales, whom the Milesian land nurtured,
She herself brought forth, an astrologer of the first rank.

The sayings which are circulated under his name are these: Many words are not a sign of a prudent mind. Choose one thing that is wise, choose one thing that is excellent; for you will thereby obstruct the mouths of not a few talkative men. St. 22. 23. These maxims of his are also handed down: (God is the most ancient of all things that are, for he is unbegotten. The world is the most beautiful, for it was made by God. Place is the greatest, for it contains all things. The mind is the most swift, for it runs through all things. Necessity is the strongest, for it overcomes all things. The wisest is