Heraclitus Quotes

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

“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

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

“Wisdom is the oneness of mind that guides and permeates all things.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“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

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

“Fire lives in the death of earth, air lives in the death of fire, water lives in the death of air, and earth in the death of water.”
― Heraclitus

“You can't go home again. Your childhood is lost. The friends of your youth are gone. Your present is slipping away from you. Nothing is ever the same.”
― Heraclitus of Ephesus, The fragments of the work of Heraclitus of Ephesus on nature; translated from the Greek text of Bywater, with an introd. historical and critical

“Everything flows and nothing abides; everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.”
― Heraclitus

“Everything changes and nothing stands still.”
― Heraclitus

“You cannot step into the same river twice”
― Heraclitus of Ephesus

“If they are gods, why do you lament them? If you lament them, you must no longer regard them as gods.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“And further, observing that all this indeterminate substance is in motion, and that no true predication can be made of that which changes, they supposed that it is impossible to make any true statement about that which is in all ways and entirely changeable. For it was from this supposition that there blossomed forth the most extreme view of those which we have mentioned, that of the professed followers of Heraclitus, and such as Cratylus held, who ended by thinking that one need not say anything, and only moved his finger; and who criticized Heraclitus for saying that one cannot enter the same river twice, for he himself held that it cannot be done even once.”
― Aristotle

“Πάντα ῥεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει
(All is flux, and nothing abides)”
― Heraclitus

“To fight with desire is hard: whatever it wishes it buys at the price of a soul.”
― Heraclitus

“It seems as if historicist ideas easily become prominent in times of great social change. They appeared when Greek tribal life broke up, as well as when that of the Jews was shattered by the impact of the Babylonian conquest. There can be little doubt, I believe, that Heraclitus’ philosophy is an expression of a feeling of drift; a feeling which seems to be a typical reaction to the dissolution of the ancient tribal forms of social life. In modern Europe, historicist ideas were revived during the industrial revolution, and especially through the impact of the political revolutions in America and France. It appears to be more than a mere coincidence that Hegel, who adopted so much of Heraclitus’ thought and passed it on to all modern historicist movements, was a mouthpiece of the reaction against the French Revolution.”
― Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies - Volume One: The Spell of Plato

“The life of the body is sustained by the breath which inhaled the dry vapors kindred fire. At night, when the sun is extinguished and the world becomes unconscious, we inhale the dark wet vapors and sink into death-like sleep.”
― G.T.W. Patrick, Fragments

“I went in search of myself.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“Everything flows and water bills are getting higher and higher.”
― Ljupka Cvetanova, Yet Another New Land

“If Heraclitus was a Macedonian, his philosophy would be : No Macedonian ever steps in the same native country twice. For it’s not the same country name and he’s not the same citizen.”
― Ljupka Cvetanova, Yet Another New Land