There are forces in nature called Love and Hate. The force of Love causes elements to be attracted to each other and to be built up into some particular form or person, and the force of Hate causes the decomposition of things.
EmpedoclesWhat is lawful is not binding only on some and not binding on others. Lawfulness extends everywhere, through the wide-ruling air and the boundless light of the sky.
EmpedoclesHaving glimpsed a small part of life, men rise up and disappear as smoke, knowing only what each one has learned.
EmpedoclesFor before this I was born once a boy, and a maiden, and a plant, and a bird, and a darting fish in the sea.
EmpedoclesBlessed is he who has acquired a wealth of divine wisdom, but miserable he in whom there rests a dim opinion concerning the gods.
EmpedoclesAt one time through love all things come together into one, at another time through strife s hatred, they are borne each of them apart.
EmpedoclesThe force that unites the elements to become all things is Love, also called Aphrodite; Love brings together dissimilar elements into a unity, to become a composite thing. Love is the same force that human beings find at work in themselves whenever they feel joy, love and peace. Strife, on the other hand, is the force responsible for the dissolution of the one back into its many, the four elements of which it was composed.
EmpedoclesVarious accounts of Empedocle's death are given in ancient sources. His enemies said that his desire to be thought a god led him to throw himself into the crater of Mount Etna so that he might vanish from the world completely and thus lead men to believe he had achieved apotheosis. Unfortunately the volcano defeated his design by throwing out one of the philosopher's sandals.
Empedocles