The philosopher who told everyone to stop — thinking, moving, being born. Parmenides (fl. early 5th century BCE) wrote a cryptic poem where a goddess tells you: all change is illusion, and reality is one, eternal, and unshakably still. No flux, no time, no nonsense. Just Being — capital B. He shook Greek philosophy so hard, even Plato had to take a seat. Rational, radical, and wrapped in verse, Parmenides makes your senses look like amateurs.