Heraclitus Quotes

The only constant is change. Unless you get a small group of neighbors together to stop it.

If you do not expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail.

There is a stability in the Universe because of the orderly and balanced process of change, the same measure coming out as going in, as if reality were a huge fire that inhaled and exhaled equal amounts.

Stupidity is better kept a secret than displayed.

Could you tell night from day? No, I regard all such distinctions as logically impossible.

Immortal mortals, mortal immortals, one living the others death and dying the others life.

Under the comb, the tangle and the straight path are the same.

The opposite is beneficial; from things that differ comes the fairest attunement; all things are born through strife.

Justice will overtake fabricators of lies and false witnesses.

No same man could walk through the same river twice, as the man and the river have since changed.

Time is a game played beautifully by children.

Much learning does not teach understanding.

Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find it, for it is hard to discover and hard to attain.

Though wisdom is common, yet the many live as if they had a wisdom of their own.

Wisdom is one thing, to know how to make true judgment, how all things are steered through all things.

I see nothing but Becoming. Be not deceived! It is the fault of your limited outlook and not the fault of the essence of things if you believe that you see firm land anywhere in the ocean of Becoming and Passing. You need names for things, just as if they had a rigid permanence, but the very river in which you bathe a second time is no longer the same one which you entered before

The universal cosmic process was not created by any god or man.

Change is the only constant.

Eternity is a child playing, playing checkers; the kingdom belongs to a child.

Corpses are more fit to be thrown out than is dung.

The content of your #‎ character is your #‎ choice.

All things come into being by conflict of opposites.

All things are in a state of flux.

Men who wish to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details.

All things come into being through opposition and all are in flux like a river

It is better to conceal ignorance than to expose it.

If it were not for injustice, men would not know justice.

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

Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.

This universe, which is the same for all, has not been made by any god or man, but it always has been, is, and will be an ever-living fire, kindling itself by regular measures and going out by regular measures.

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

War is the mother of everything.

It is wise to agree that all things are one.

We have to be faster in calming down a resentment than putting out a fire, because the consequences of the first are infinitely more dangerous than the results of the last; fire ends burning down some houses at the most, while the resentment can cause cruel wars, with the ruin and total destruction of nations.

Where there is no strife there is decay: 'The mixture which is not shaken decomposes.'

What sense or thought do they have? They follow the popular singers, and they take the crowd as their teacher.

Life has the name of life, but in reality it is death.

The world is nothing but a great desire to live and a great dissatisfaction with living.

Abundance of knowledge does not teach men to be wise.

Thinking is a sacred disease and sight is deceptive.

Man, like a light in the night, is kindled and put out.

One must know that war is common, justice is strife, and everything happens according to strife and necessity.

No one can step twice into the same river, nor touch mortal substance twice in the same condition. By the speed of its change, it scatters and gathers again.

The way up and the way down are one and the same.

Nature is accustomed to hide itself.

All things come out of the one, and the one out of all things.

The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.

Dogs bark at a person whom they do not know.

The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think and what you do is who you become.

Big results require big ambitions.

This world... ever was, and is, and shall be, ever-living Fire, in measures being kindled and in measures going out.

I am what libraries and librarians have made me, with little assistance from a professor of Greek and poets

Whosoever wishes to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details. Knowledge is not intelligence. In searching for the truth be ready for the unexpected. Change alone is unchanging. The same road goes both up and down. The beginning of a circle is also its end. Not I, but the world says it: all is one. And yet everything comes in season.

The sun is new each day.

You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.

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

Wisdom consists in speaking and acting the truth.

Those unmindful when they hear, for all they make of their intelligence, may be regarded as the walking dead.

We circle in the night and we are devoured by fire.

Everything changes and nothing stands still.