Appearances are a glimpse of the unseen.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that what we see is only a small part of a larger reality that is not immediately visible.
Anaxagoras' quote emphasizes the idea that our perceptions and appearances are limited and do not encompass the entirety of truth or reality. It invites us to look beyond superficial observations to understand the deeper, often hidden aspects of existence, encouraging a thoughtful examination of the world around us.
In practice
In a discussion about human nature, one might use this quote to illustrate the complexity of people's inner lives.
The Greeks are wrong to recognize coming into being and perishing; for nothing comes into being nor perishes, but is rather compounded or dissolved from things that are. So they would be right to call coming into being composition and perishing dissolution.
It is not I who have lost the Athenians, but the Athenians who have lost me.
Men would live exceedingly quiet if these two words, mine and thine, were taken away.
Everything has a natural explanation. The moon is not a god but a great rock and the sun a hot rock.
And since the portions of the great and the small are equal in number, so too all things would be in everything. Nor is it possible that they should exist apart, but all things have a portion of everything.
The descent into Hades is much the same from whatever place we start.
I don't believe in death, neither in flesh nor in spirit.
Only thought which does violence to itself is hard enough to shatter myth.
If the awareness of our limitations begins to limit or to dim our value consciousness as well—as happens, for instance, in old age with regard to the values of youth—then we have already started the movement of devaluation which will end with the defamation of the world and all its values. Only a timely act of resignation can deliver us from this tendency toward self-delusion.
The path of a good woman is indeed strewn with flowers; but they rise behind her steps, not before them.
Adam's abduction was our private hell - but it was not an isolated incident. On any given day, any number of children are absent from their homes for diverse and numerous reasons.
If western culture is shown to be rich it is because, even before the Enlightenment, it has tried to "dissolve" harmful simplifications through inquiry and the critical mind.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.