Heraclitus Quotes
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Even what those with the greatest reputation for knowing it all claim to understand and defend are but opinions.
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Dogs bark at a person whom they do not know.
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What we have caught and what we have killed we have left behind, but what has escaped us we bring with us.
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Many who have learned from Hesiod the countless names of gods and monsters never understand that night and day are one.
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There is nothing permanent except change. Nothing is permanent except change. The only constant is change. Change is the only constant. Change alone is unchanging.
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Men who are lovers of wisdom [i.e., philosophers] must be inquirers into many things.
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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.
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It is hard to contend against one's heart's desire; for whatever it wishes to have it buys at the cost of soul.
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It is by disease that health is pleasant; by evil that good is pleasant; by hunger, satiety; by weariness, rest.
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Nature is accustomed to hide itself.
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The only constant is change.
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Day by day, what you do is who you become.
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Those who are awake all live in the same world. Those who are asleep live in their own worlds.
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People ought to fight to keep their law as to defend the city s walls.
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War is the father and king of all: some he has made gods, and some men; some slaves and some free.
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History is a child building a sand-castle by the sea, and that child is the whole majesty of man's power in the world.
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The only thing constant is change.
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Of the Logos which is as I describe it men always prove to be uncomprehending, both before they have heard it and when once they have heard it. For although all things happen according to this Logos, they [men] are like people of no experience, even when they experience such words and deeds as I explain, when I distinguish each thing according to its constitution and declare how it is; but the rest of men fail to notice what they do after they wake up just as they forget what they do when asleep.
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Religion is a disease, but it is a noble disease.
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The results are in great need greater ambition.
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Even a soul submerged in sleep is hard at work and helps make something of the world.
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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."
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Change is the only constant.
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Hide our ignorance as we will, an evening of wine soon reveals it.