None of the gods has formed the world, nor has any man, it has always been.

Many fires burn below the surface.

Each man believes only his experience.

For before this I was born once a boy, and a maiden, and a plant, and a bird, and a darting fish in the sea.

Blessed is he who has acquired a wealth of divine wisdom, but miserable he in whom there rests a dim opinion concerning the gods.

Having glimpsed a small part of life, men rise up and disappear as smoke, knowing only what each one has learned.

Various 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.