Quotation
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“The most ancient of things is God, for he is uncreated.”
Thales of Miletus · Milesian · Ancient · anecdote written centuries later about a 6th-century figure
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading hears a theological maxim: God is older than everything else because God was never made. A competing reading hears a later Greek piety put into the mouth of the man Aristotle had already made the first philosopher, so that the founder would also sound devout. The sentence is in the same list as the life-and-death joke, Lives 1.35. It is not Aristotle's physics. It does not say that water is God, and it does not cancel the report that the principle is water. Those are different dossiers. This one is a saying a biographer preserved. The authorship is the uncertain part, which is why the badge is Questionable rather than a claim that the Greek is his.
Did Thales of Miletus really say this?
The library’s label is Questionable. Diogenes Laertius 1.35 lists this among sayings of Thales, in the testimony collected as Diels-Kranz 11 A1. It is not a sentence from a Milesian book, and it should not be merged with the water report.
Where it comes from
Diogenes Laertius, Lives 1.35 (Diels-Kranz 11 A1)
Approximate date: anecdote written centuries later about a 6th-century figure.
How to use it
A poster that puts 'God is the oldest thing' under Thales's name is using a list from Diogenes Laertius. The list can be read. It cannot be treated as a page of a lost treatise. If the sentence is discussed, the biographer belongs in the same breath.
A mindset reading
Separate a doxographical saying from a cited argument. The habit matters most for the earliest names, where the silence is largest. A clean maxim is often the sign that a later writer has been tidying.
Understand the philosophy
This is still Lives 1.35, Diels-Kranz 11 A1. The key claim is that God is uncreated and therefore the most ancient of things. It sits in a catalogue of remarks, not in a demonstration. Aristotle's two reports are the closer evidence for what the Milesian school was later thought to have said about nature. This card exists so the saying is not confused with those reports, and so it is not invented a second time as if it were new.
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FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading hears a theological maxim: God is older than everything else because God was never made. A competing reading hears a later Greek piety put into the mouth of the man Aristotle had already made the first philosopher, so that the founder would also sound devout. The sentence is in the same list as the life-and-death joke, Lives 1.35. It is not Aristotle's physics. It does not say that water is God, and it does not cancel the report that the principle is water. Those are different dossiers. This one is a saying a biographer preserved. The authorship is the uncertain part, which is why the badge is Questionable rather than a claim that the Greek is his.
Did Thales of Miletus really say this?
Questionable. Diogenes Laertius 1.35 lists this among sayings of Thales, in the testimony collected as Diels-Kranz 11 A1. It is not a sentence from a Milesian book, and it should not be merged with the water report.
Which work is it in?
Diogenes Laertius, Lives 1.35 (Diels-Kranz 11 A1) Approximate date: anecdote written centuries later about a 6th-century figure.