From Diogenes Laertius (1.35), some precepts in verse of Thales (via Loeb’s Early Greek Philosophy v.2):
τῶν τε ᾀδομένων αὐτοῦ τάδε εἶναι·
οὔ τι τὰ πολλὰ ἔπη φρονίμην ἀπεφήνατο δόξαν·
ἕν τι μάτευε σοφόν,ἕν τι κεδνὸν αἱροῦ·
λύσεις γὰρ ἀνδρῶν κωτίλων
γλώσσας ἀπεραντολόγους.
Among his songs there are the following:
Many words do not manifest a sensible opinion.
Search for one thing: what is wise.
Choose one thing: what is good.
For you will undo the endlessly talking tongues
Of chattering men.
Diels opted for a different reading – δήσεις – which gives the sense ‘tie up, bind the endlessly talking tongues.’ I’ve not checked whether that’s a variant reading or a conjecture to avoid potential issues with λύω, which does allow the sense ‘undo’ but usually means ‘loosen’ (and there are instances in Euripides and Plato where it specifically is applied to loosening tongues, cited in the linked entry at 1B). I accidentally hear an anachronistic echo here of Benedict’s “To bind me or undo me, one of them” at the close of Much Ado.
ἀπεραντολόγος is a near unique compound adjective with an epic feel. At a glance – assuming these verses are Thales’ and not a later attribution – it feels a sideswipe at fellow early philosopher Anaximander’s pursuit of the apeiron (the boundless) as the origin of all things.
Extracts 