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".

Bigotry is the sacred disease, and self-conceit tells lies.

Heraclitus
- Lies
- Disease
- Bigotry
For those who are awake, the Cosmos is One.

Heraclitus
- Awake
- One
- Cosmos

Change alone is unchanging.

Heraclitus
- Change
- Alone
- Unchanging
It is harder to fight pleasure than to fight emotion.

Heraclitus
- Fight
- Pleasure
- Emotion
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
The Lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither reveals nor conceals, but gives a sign.

Heraclitus
- The Lord
- Sign
- Reveals
The most beautiful ape is ugly when compared to a human. The wisest human will seem like an ape when compared to a god with respect to wisdom, beauty, and everything else.

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

Heraclitus

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

Heraclitus
- Way
- River
- Waters
Time is a child playing with droughts. The lordship is to the child.

Heraclitus
- Child
- Time Is
- Lordship
All things come into being by conflict of opposites.

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

Heraclitus
- Change
- Permanent
- Flux
All things come out of the one, and the one out of all things.

Heraclitus
- All Things
- One
War is the mother of everything.

Heraclitus
- War
- Mother

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
Lifetime is a child at play, moving pieces in a game. Kingship belongs to the child.

Heraclitus
- Game
- Lifetime
- Kingship
Doctors cut, burn, and torture the sick, and then demand of them an undeserved fee for such services.

Heraclitus
- Sick
- Doctor
- Services
Of all whose words I have heard, no one attains to this, to know that wisdom is apart from all.

Heraclitus
- Words
- Wisdom
- Heard
If we do not expect the unexpected, we will never find it.

Heraclitus
- Find It
- Not Expect
The awake share a common world, but the asleep turn aside into private worlds.

Heraclitus

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

Heraclitus
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
A dry soul is wisest and best.

Heraclitus
- Soul
- Best
- Wisest
The world is nothing but a great desire to live and a great dissatisfaction with living.

Heraclitus