Commentary

This saying, transmitted among the sayings attributed to Thales, expresses an admiration for the ordered world as the product of divine craftsmanship. The notion of kosmos as beautiful and ordered is central to Greek thought, and its attribution to Thales fits the image of the early philosopher as a student of the heavens. G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, and M. Schofield note that the phrase reflects a tradition in which the cosmos was understood as a unified and intelligible whole. Charles Kahn has argued that Milesian thinkers developed the idea of cosmic order as a rational structure, and that the aesthetic judgment expressed here belongs to that development. A. A. Long emphasises that the sayings of the Seven Sages were used to present ideal wisdom, so that the content may reflect later preoccupations. Jonathan Barnes observes that the answer's theological framing is probably secondary to the cosmological interest. W. K. C. Guthrie treats the saying as a conventional expression of early Greek wonder at nature. The English here is approximate, and the attribution to Thales should be treated as traditional rather than secure.