Protagoras Quotes

#1. The Greek culture of the Sophists had developed out of all the Greek instincts; it belongs to the culture of the Periclean age as necessarily as Plato does not: it has its predecessors in Heraclitus, in Democritus, in the scientific types of the old philosophy; it finds expression in, e.g., the high culture of Thucydides. And – it has ultimately shown itself to be right: every advance in epistemological and moral knowledge has reinstated the Sophists – Our contemporary way of thinking is to a great extent Heraclitean, Democritean, and Protagorean: it suffices to say it is Protagorean, because Protagoras represented a synthesis of Heraclitus and Democritus. #Quote by Friedrich Nietzsche

#2. As to the people they have no understanding, and only repeat what their rulers are pleased to tell them" (Protagoras, 317); to get a doctrine accepted or rejected it is only necessary to have it praised or ridiculed in a popular play (a hit, no doubt, at Aristophanes, whose comedies attacked almost every new idea). Mob-rule is a rough sea for the ship of state to ride; every wind of oratory stirs up the waters and deflects the course. The upshot of such a democracy is tyranny or autocracy; the crowd so loves flattery, it is so "hungry for honey," that at last the wiliest and most unscrupulous flatterer, calling himself the "protector of the people" rises to supreme power (565). #Quote by Will Durant

#3. The causes which ruined the Republic of Athens illustrate the connection of ethics with politics rather than the vices inherent to democracy. A State which has only 30,000 full citizens in a population of 500,000, and is governed, practically, by about 3000 people at a public meeting, is scarcely democratic. The short triumph of Athenian liberty, and its quick decline, belong to an age which possessed no fixed standard of right and wrong. An unparalleled activity of intellect was shaking the credit of the gods, and the gods were the givers of the law. It was a very short step from the suspicion of Protagoras, that there were no gods, to the assertion of Critias that there is no sanction for laws. If nothing was certain in theology, there was no certainty in ethics and no moral obligation. The will of man, not the will of God, was the rule of life, and every man and body of men had the right to do what they had the means of doing. Tyranny was no wrong, and it was hypocrisy to deny oneself the enjoyment it affords. The doctrine of the Sophists gave no limits to power and no security to freedom; it inspired that cry of the Athenians, that they must not be hindered from doing what they pleased, and the speeches of men like Athenagoras and Euphemus, that the democracy may punish men who have done no wrong, and that nothing that is profitable is amiss. And Socrates perished by the reaction which they provoked. #Quote by John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

#4. The Athenians are right to accept advice from anyone, since it is incumbent on everyone to share in that sort of excellence, or else there can be no city at all. #Quote by Protagoras

#5. Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or that they do not exist, nor what sort of form they may have; there are many reasons why knowledge on this subject is not possible, owing to the lack of evidence and the shortness of human life. #Quote by Protagoras

#6. Concerning the gods I cannot know either that they exist or that they do not exist, or what form they might have, for there is much to prevent one's knowing: the obscurity of the subject and the shortness of man's life. #Quote by Protagoras

#7. When it comes to consideration of how to do well in running the city, which must proceed entirely through justice and soundness of mind. #Quote by Protagoras

#8. Man is the measure of all things #Quote by Protagoras

#9. It's as if we have returned to the era of Protagoras and the sophists, the era when the art of persuasion
for which slogans, commercials, public propaganda meetings, newspapers, cinema, radio are the modern equivalent
took the place of thought, determined the fate of cities and accomplished coups #Quote by Simone Weil

#10. It's a curious thing that the mental life seems to flourish with its roots in spite, ineffable and fathomless spite. Always has been so! Look at Socrates, in Plato, and his bunch round him! The sheer spite of it all, just sheer joy in pulling somebody else to bits...Protagoras, or whoever it was! And Alcibiades, and all the other little disciple dogs joining in the fray! I must say it makes one prefer Buddha, quietly sitting under a bo-tree, or Jesus, telling his disciples little Sunday stories, peacefully, and without any mental fireworks. No, there's something wrong with the mental life, radically. It's rooted in spite and envy, envy and spite. Ye shall know the tree by its fruit. #Quote by D.H. Lawrence

#11. Protagoras asserted that there are two sides to every question, exactly opposite to each other. #Quote by Diogenes

#12. As to gods, I have no way of knowing either that they exist or do not exist, or what they are like. #Quote by Protagoras

#13. About the gods I have no means of knowing either that they exist or that they do not exist or what they are to look at. Many things prevent my knowing. Among others, the fact that they are never seen. #Quote by Protagoras

#14. Protagoras did not know if the gods exist, but he held in any case they ought to be worshiped. Philosophy, according to him, had nothing edifying to teach, and for the survival of morals we must rely upon the thoughtlessness of the majority and their willingness to believe what they had been taught. #Quote by Bertrand Russell

#15. Socrates : Then would he not be conceding that his own opinion is false, if he grants that the opinion of those who think he is in error is true?
Theodorus : Necessarily.
Socrates : But the others do not concede that they are in error, do they?
Theodorus : No, they do not.
Socrates : And he, in turn, according to his writings, grants that this opinion also is true.
Theodorus : Evidently.
Socrates : Then all men, beginning with Protagoras, will dispute - or rather, he will grant, after he once concedes that the opinion of the man who holds the opposite view is true - even Protagoras himself, I say, will concede that neither a dog nor any casual man is a measure of anything whatsoever that he has not learned. Is not that the case?
Theodorus : Yes.
Socrates : Then since the "truth" of Protagoras is disputed by all, it would be true to nobody, neither to anyone else nor to him.
[171b-c] #Quote by Plato

#16. My opinion is: Truth must be absolute and that you Mr. Protagoras, are absolutely in error. Since this is indeed my opinion, then you must concede that it is true according to your philosophy. #Quote by Plato

#17. No intelligent man believes that anybody ever willingly errs or willingly does base and evil deeds; they are well aware that all who do base and evil things do them unwillingly. #Quote by Protagoras