Heraclitus Quotes

Applicants for wisdomdo what I have done:inquire within

All are one

All is flux

The Aeon is a child at play with colored balls.(translation/paraphrase: Terence McKenna)

You can't step into the same river twice.

Always having what we wantmay not be the best good fortuneHealth seems sweetestafter sickness, foodin hunger, goodnessin the wake of evil, and at the endof daylong labor sleep.

There is nothing permanent except change.

Any day stands equal to the rest.

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.

Nothing is permanent but change.

One thunderbolt strikesroot through everything

If they are gods, why do you lament them? If you lament them, you must no longer regard them as gods.

Allow yourself to think only those thoughts that match your principles and can bear the bright light of day. Day by day, your choices, your thoughts, your actions fashion the person you become. Your integrity determines your destiny.

Unless you expect the unexpected, you will not find it, for it is hidden and thickly tangled.

One must realize that war is common, and justice strife, and that all things come to be through strife and are (so) ordained.

Aion is a child at play, playing draughts; the kingship is a child's.

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.

Men forget where the way leads and what they meet with every day seems strange to them.We should not act and speak like men asleep.

Time is a game played beautifully by children.

War is father of all, and king of all. He renders some gods, others men; he makes some slaves, others free.

Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.

Give me one manfrom among ten thousandif he is the best

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

The sun is new each day.

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

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 things flow nothing abides.

Stupidity is doomed,therefore, to cringeat every syllableof wisdom.

Everything flows and nothing stays.

It is in changing that things find purpose.

Character is destiny

If you do not expect it you will not find the unexpected for it is hard to find and difficult.

Many who have learnedfrom Hesiod the countless namesof gods and monstersnever understandthat night and day are one

You cannot step twice into the same river for other waters are continually flowing on.

Nature loves to hide.

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

Nothing endures but change.

Everything flows nothing stays still.

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

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

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

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

Because it is so unbelievable, the truth often escapes being known.

To be evenminded is the greatest virtue.Wisdom is to speakthe truth and actin keeping with its nature.