Heraclitus > Quotes

“Time is a game played beautifully by children.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

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

“Even a soul submerged in sleep
is hard at work and helps
make something of the world.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“To be evenminded
is the greatest virtue.
Wisdom is to speak
the truth and act
in keeping with its nature.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny - it is the light that guides your way.”
― Heraclitus

“Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing for the known way is an impasse.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“19

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

(translated by Brooks Haxton)”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“People ought to fight
to keep their law
as to defend the citys walls.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.”
― Heraclitus

“Man's character is his fate.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“We are most nearly ourselves when we achieve the seriousness of the child at play.”
― Heraclitus

“Nothing endures but change”
― Heraclitus

“How can you hide from what never goes away?”
― Heraclitus

“Abundance of knowledge does not teach men to be wise.”
― Heraclitus

“The unlike is joined together, and from differences results the most beautiful harmony.”
― Heraclitus

“Much learning does not teach understanding.”
― Heraclitus

“It is in changing that we find purpose.”
― Heraclitus

“All things are in flux; the flux is subject to a unifying measure or rational principle. This principle (logos, the hidden harmony behind all change) bound opposites together in a unified tension, which is like that of a lyre, where a stable harmonious sound emerges from the tension of the opposing forces that arise from the bow bound together by the string.”
― Heraclitus

“All are one”
― Heraclitus

“Silence, healing.”
― Heraclitus

“Character is destiny”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“The sun is new each day.”
― Heraclitus

“It ever was, and is, and shall be, ever-living fire, in measures being kindled and in measures going out.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“The awake share a common world, but the asleep turn aside into private worlds.”
― Heraclitus

“ἀθάνατοι θνητοί, θνητοὶ ἀθάντατοι, ζῶντες τὸν ἐκείνων θάνατον, τὸν δὲ ἐκείνων βίον τεθνεῶτες

(Mortals are immortals and immortals are mortals, the one living the others' death and dying the others' life.)”
― Heraclitus

“Thinking is a sacred disease and sight is deceptive.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“Πάντα ῥεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει.

(Everything changes, and no thing abides.)”
― Heraclitus

“The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts.”
― Heraclitus

“The poet was a fool
who wanted no conflict
among us, gods
or people.
Harmony needs
low and high,
as progeny needs
man and woman.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“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.”
― Heraclitus

“Ethos anthropoi daimon--a man's character is his fate.”
― Heraclitus

“It is necessary to take what is common as our guide; however, though this logic is universal, the many live as if each individual has his own private wisdom.”
― Heraclitus

“τήν τε οἴησιν ἱερὰν νόσον ἔλεγε καὶ τὴν ὅρασιν ψεύδεσθαι

(Thinking is a sacred disease, and sight is deceptive.)”
― Heraclitus

“Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.”
― Heraclitus

“Change is the only constant in life.”
― Heraclitus

“The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change -”
― Heraclitus

“Time is a child playing with droughts. The lordship is to the child.”
― Heraclitus

“The people must fight on behalf of the law as though for the city wall.”
― Heraclitus

“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.”
― Heraclitus

“Even what those with the greatest reputation for knowing it all claim to understand and defend are but opinions.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“It is not appropriate to act and speak like men asleep.”
― Heraclitus

“Life has the name of life, but in reality it is death.”
― Heraclitus

“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.”
― Heraclitus

“Σίβυλλα δὲ μαινομένῳ στόματι καθ' Ἡράκλειτον ἀγέλαστα καὶ ἀκαλλώπιστα καὶ ἀμύριστα φθεγγομένη χιλίων ἐτῶν ἐξικνεῖται τῇ φονῇ διὰ τὸν θεόν

(And the Sibyl, with raving lips uttering things mirthless, unbedizened, and unperfumed, reaches over a thousand years with her voice, thanks to the god in her.)”
― Heraclitus

“The lord whose is the oracle at Delphoi neither utters nor hides his meaning, but shows it by a sign.

The Sibyl, with raving lips uttering things mirthless, unbedizened, and unperfumed, reaches over a thousand years with her voice, thanks to the god in her.”
― Heraclitus

“The sun is the width of a human foot.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“Realize that war is common and justice is strife, and that all things come into being and pass away through strife.”
― Heraclitus

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

“γραφέων ὁδὸς εὐθεῖα καὶ σκολιὴ μία ἐστί, φησί, καὶ ἡ αὐτή

(The path of writing is crooked and straight)”
― Heraclitus

“What are men? Mortal gods.
What are gods? Immortal men.”
― Heraclitus