Heraclitus Quotes

Heraclitus Quotes

Many who have learned
from Hesiod the countless names
of gods and monsters
never understand
that night and day are one

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.

Time is a game played beautifully by children.

Even a soul submerged in sleep
is hard at work and helps
make something of the world.

To be evenminded
is the greatest virtue.
Wisdom is to speak
the truth and act
in keeping with its nature.

Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing for the known way is an impasse.

19

Wisdom is the oneness of mind that guides and permeated all things.

(translated by Brooks Haxton)

People ought to fight
to keep their law
as to defend the citys walls.

All are one

People do not know how what is at variance agrees with itself. It is an attunement of opposite tensions, like that of the bow and the lyre.

All is flux

Nothing endures but change.

The waking have one world in common; sleepers have each a private world of his own.

The kosmos works by harmony of tensions, like lyre and bow. Good and evil are one. On the one hand God sees all as well, fair, and good; on the other hand a human being sees injustice here, justice there. Justice in our minds is strife. We cannot help but see war makes us as we are.

Everything changes and nothing stands still.

Everything flows and nothing stays.

Nothing endures but change

What was scattered
gathers.
What was gathered
blows away.

Traveling on every path, you will not find the boundaries of soul by going; so deep is its measure.

Other men are unaware of what they do when they are awake just as they are forgetful of what they do when they are asleep.

One thunderbolt strikes
root through everything

The unlike is joined together, and from differences results the most beautiful harmony.

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