Top 230 Quotes & Sayings by Heraclitus - Page 2

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.

Wisdom consists in speaking and acting the truth.

It is difficult to fight against anger; for a man will buy revenge with his soul.

War is the mother of everything.

Knowing many things doesn't teach insight.

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

Everything flows, nothing stays still.

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.

Time is a game played beautifully by children.

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

The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day.

The majority of people have no understanding of the things with which they daily meet, nor, when instructed, do they have any right knowledge of them, although to themselves they seem to have.

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.

Wisdom is the oneness of mind that guides and permeated all things.

It is by disease that health is pleasant; by evil that good is pleasant; by hunger, satiety; by weariness, rest.

The only constant in life is change

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

Knowledge is not intelligence.

Stupidity is better kept a secret than displayed.

Religion is a disease, but it is a noble disease.

When men dream, each has his own world. When they are awake, they have a common world.

Everything flows and nothing abides; everything gives way and nothing stays fixed... Cool things become warm, the warm grows cool; the moist dries, the parched becomes moist... It is in changing that things find repose.

Greater dooms win greater destinies.

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

What was scattered, gathers. What was gathered, blows away

Doctors cut, burn, and torture the sick, and then demand of them an undeserved fee for such services.

Those who love wisdom must investigate many things

Learning many things does not teach understanding

It is in changing that things find purpose.

All things come into being by conflict of opposites.

Not I but the world says it: All is one.

Presumption must be quenched even more than a fire.

You won't discover the limits of the soul, however far you go.

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

Eyes are more accurate witnesses than ears.

Much learning does not teach sense.

It is harder to fight pleasure than to fight emotion.

The best of men choose one thing in preference to all else, immortal glory in preference to mortal good; whereas the masses simply glut themselves like cattle.

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

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

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

Even what those with the greatest reputation for knowing it all claim to understand and defend are but opinions.

There is nothing permanent in the world except change.

To be evenminded is the greatest virtue. Wisdom is to speak the truth and act in keeping with its nature.

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.

All men have the capacity of knowing themselves and acting with moderation.

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

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

It is better to hide ignorance, but it is hard to do this when we relax over wine.

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.

And some men are as ignorant of what they do when awake as they are forgetful of what they do when asleep.

There is nothing permanent except change. [Therefore enjoy what good you have while you have it and endure and outlast what bad you can't cure immediately]

You cannot step twice into the same river.

What are men? Mortal gods. What are gods? Immortal men.

You may travel far and wide but never will you find the boundaries of the soul.

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

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

Invisible harmony is better than visible.

The Cosmos was not made by gods but always was and is eternal fire.

Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow. Nothing endures but change.