Heraclitus Quotes

Heraclitus of Ephesus (/ˌhɛrəˈklaɪtəs/; Greek: Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος, translit. Hērákleitos ho Ephésios; c. 535 – c. 475 BCE) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, and a native of the city of Ephesus, then part of the Persian Empire. He was of distinguished parentage. Little is known about his early life and education, but he regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. From the lonely life he led, and still more from the apparently riddled and allegedly paradoxical nature of his philosophy and his stress upon the heedless unconsciousness of humankind, he was called "The Obscure" and the "Weeping Philosopher".

Nothing is, everything is becoming.

Heraclitus
- Nothing
- Becoming
To God all things are beautiful, good, and right; human beings, on the other hand, deem some things right and others wrong. It would not be better if things happened to people just as they wish.

Heraclitus
- People
- God
- Human Beings

What is divine escapes men's notice because of their incredulity.

Heraclitus
For when is death not within our selves? And as Heracleitus says: “Living and dead are the same, and so are awake and asleep, young and old. The former when shifted are the latter, and again the latter when shifted are the former."

Heraclitus
- Death
- Awake
- Shifted
Nothing endures but change. There is nothing permanent except change. All is flux, nothing stays still.

Heraclitus
- Change
- Permanent
- Flux
Big results require big ambitions.

Heraclitus
Men that love wisdom must be acquainted with very many things indeed.

Heraclitus
- Love
- Wisdom
- Acquainted
The Sibyl, with frenzied mouth uttering things not to be laughed at, unadorned and unperfumed, yet reaches to a thousand years with her voice by aid of the god.

Heraclitus
- Voice
- Reaches
- Sibyl

For those who are awake, the Cosmos is One.

Heraclitus
- Awake
- One
- Cosmos
You won't discover the limits of the soul, however far you go.

Heraclitus
- Soul
- Discover
- Limits
The Lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither reveals nor conceals, but gives a sign.

Heraclitus
- The Lord
- Sign
- Reveals
Bigotry is the sacred disease, and self-conceit tells lies.

Heraclitus
- Lies
- Disease
- Bigotry
Time is a child playing with droughts. The lordship is to the child.

Heraclitus
- Child
- Time Is
- Lordship
Learning many things does not teach understanding.

Heraclitus

If you went in search of it, you would not find the boundaries of the soul, though you traveled every road-so deep is its measure [logos].

Heraclitus
- Soul
- Search
- Traveled
All things come into being by conflict of opposites.

Heraclitus
Change alone is unchanging.

Heraclitus
- Change
- Alone
- Unchanging
The river where you set your foot just now is gone-those waters give way to this, now this.

Heraclitus
- Way
- River
- Waters
All things come out of the one, and the one out of all things.

Heraclitus
- All Things
- One
I am what libraries and librarians have made me, with little assistance from a professor of Greek and poets.

Heraclitus

War is the mother of everything.

Heraclitus
- War
- Mother
Knowing many things doesn't teach insight.

Heraclitus
- Teach
- Knowing
- Insight
And some men are as ignorant of what they do when awake as they are forgetful of what they do when asleep.

Heraclitus
- Ignorant
- Awake
- Forgetful
The world is nothing but a great desire to live and a great dissatisfaction with living.

Heraclitus