Explore the most impactful and insightful quotes and sayings by Heraclitus, and enrich your perspective with the wisdom. Share these inspiring Heraclitus quotes pictures with your friends on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blogs, completely free. Here are the top 255 Heraclitus quotes for you to read and share.
You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you. -- Heraclitus
Life has the name of life, but in reality it is death. -- Heraclitus
Eyes and ears are bad witnesses to men having barbarian souls. -- Heraclitus
One must realize that war is common, and justice strife, and that all things come to be through strife and are (so) ordained. -- Heraclitus
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 content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny - it is the light that guides your way. -- Heraclitus
Man's character is his fate. -- Heraclitus
What sense or thought do they have? They follow the popular singers, and they take the crowd as their teacher. -- Heraclitus
Everything flows, nothing stays still. -- Heraclitus
Much learning does not teach understanding. -- Heraclitus
There is harmony in the tension of opposites, as in the case of the bow and lyre. -- Heraclitus
Eyes and ears are poor witnesses to people if they have uncultured souls. -- Heraclitus
A blow to the head will confuse a man's thinking, a blow to the foot has no such effect, this cannot be the result of an immaterial soul. -- Heraclitus
When is death not within ourselves? ... Living and dead are the same, and so are awake and alseep, young and old. -- Heraclitus
Dogs bark at what they don't understand. -- Heraclitus
The kosmos works by harmony of tensions, like lyre and bow. Good and evil are one. On the one hand God sees all as well, fair, and good; on the other hand a human being sees injustice here, justice there. Justice in our minds is strife. We cannot help but see war makes us as we are. -- Heraclitus
The outcomes are in incredible need more prominent desire. -- Heraclitus
Realize that war is common and justice is strife, and that all things come into being and pass away through strife. -- Heraclitus
The waking have one world in common; sleepers have each a private world of his own. -- Heraclitus
Of all whose words I have heard, no one attains to this, to know that wisdom is apart from all. -- Heraclitus
Always having what we want
may not be the best good fortune
Health seems sweetest
after sickness, food
in hunger, goodness
in the wake of evil, and at the end
of daylong labor sleep. -- Heraclitus
The people must fight for their laws as for their walls. -- Heraclitus
A drunk man, staggering and mindless, must be led home by his son, so wet is his psyche ... Water brings death to the psyche, as earth brings death to water ... The psyche lusts to be wet. -- Heraclitus
There is nothing permanent in the world except change. -- Heraclitus
One must know that war is common, justice is strife, and everything happens according to strife and necessity. -- Heraclitus
It is necessary to understand that war is common, strife is customary, and all things happen because of strife and necessity. -- Heraclitus
You will not discover the limits of the soul
by traveling, even if you wander over every
conceivable path, so deep is its story. -- Heraclitus
The wise is one only. It is unwilling and willing to be called by the name of Zeus. -- Heraclitus
Even sleepers are workers and collaborators in what goes on in the Universe. -- Heraclitus
If we do not expect the unexpected, we will never find it. -- Heraclitus
Life is a child moving counters in a game. -- Heraclitus
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. -- Heraclitus
May you have plenty of wealth, you men of Ephesus, in order that you may be punished for your evil ways -- Heraclitus
It is necessary to take what is common as our guide; however, though this logic is universal, the many live as if each individual has his own private wisdom. -- Heraclitus
All men have the capacity of knowing themselves and acting with moderation. -- Heraclitus
Couples are wholes and not wholes, what agrees disagrees, the concordant is discordant. From all things one and from one all things. -- Heraclitus
The nature of things is in the habit of concealing itself. -- Heraclitus
Fire lives in the death of earth, air lives in the death of fire, water lives in the death of air, and earth in the death of water. -- Heraclitus
Heraclitus somewhere says that all things are in process and nothing stays still, and likening existing things to the stream of a river he says that you would not step twice into the same river. -- Heraclitus
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. -- Heraclitus
Aion is a child at play, playing draughts; the kingship is a child's. -- Heraclitus
The sun is new every day. (Fragment 6) -- Heraclitus
Any day stands
equal to the rest. -- Heraclitus
Men who are lovers of wisdom [i.e., philosophers] must be inquirers into many things. -- Heraclitus
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
War is the father and king of all: some he has made gods, and some men; some slaves and some free. -- Heraclitus
To God everything is beautiful, good, and just; humans, however, think some things are unjust and others just. -- Heraclitus
The fairest order in the world is a heap of random sweepings. -- Heraclitus
The lord whose is the oracle at Delphoi neither utters nor hides his meaning, but shows it by a sign.
The Sibyl, with raving lips uttering things mirthless, unbedizened, and unperfumed, reaches over a thousand years with her voice, thanks to the god in her. -- Heraclitus
The opposite is beneficial; from things that differ comes the fairest attunement; all things are born through strife. -- Heraclitus
Eyes are more accurate witnesses than ears. -- Heraclitus
If one does not expect the unexpected, one will not find it out, since it is not to be searched out, and difficut to compass. -- Heraclitus
Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find it, for it is hard to discover and hard to attain. -- Heraclitus
He who does not expect will not find out the unexpected, for it is trackless and unexplored -- Heraclitus
If you do not expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail. -- Heraclitus
If you do not hope, you will not win that which is not hoped for, since it is unattainable and inaccessible. -- Heraclitus
The only constant is change. -- Heraclitus
Other men are unaware of what they do when they are awake just as they are forgetful of what they do when they are asleep. -- Heraclitus
It is harder to fight pleasure than to fight emotion. -- Heraclitus
War is father of all, and king of all. He renders some gods, others men; he makes some slaves, others free. -- Heraclitus
The sun is new each day. -- Heraclitus
All is flux, nothing is stationary. -- Heraclitus
Lifetime is a child at play, moving pieces in a game. Kingship belongs to the child. -- Heraclitus
Time is a child playing a game of draughts; the kingship is in the hands of a child. -- Heraclitus
Everything flows, nothing stands still.
Heraclitus, 501 B.C. -- Heraclitus
The most beautiful arrangement is a pile of things poured out at random -- Heraclitus
Change alone is unchanging. -- Heraclitus
To get everything you want is not a good thing. Disease makes health seem sweet. Hunger leads to the appreciation of being full-fed. Tiredness creates the enjoyment of resting -- Heraclitus
If they are gods, why do you lament them? If you lament them, you must no longer regard them as gods. -- Heraclitus
To be evenminded
is the greatest virtue.
Wisdom is to speak
the truth and act
in keeping with its nature. -- Heraclitus
No same man could walk through the same river twice, as the man and the river have since changed. -- Heraclitus
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
People do not know how what is at variance agrees with itself. It is an attunement of opposite tensions, like that of the bow and the lyre. -- Heraclitus
Justice will overtake fabricators of lies and false witnesses. -- Heraclitus
God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, surfeit and hunger. -- Heraclitus
Let us not make random conjectures about the greatest matters. -- Heraclitus
To fight with desire is hard: whatever it wishes, it buys at the price of soul. -- Heraclitus
Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony. -- Heraclitus
The fairest harmony springs from discord. -- Heraclitus
Men forget where the way leads and what they meet with every day seems strange to them.We should not act and speak like men asleep. -- Heraclitus
The phases of fire are craving and satiety. -- Heraclitus
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man. -- Heraclitus
Where there is no strife there is decay: 'The mixture which is not shaken decomposes.' -- 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
One thunderbolt strikes
root through everything -- Heraclitus
Deliberate violence is more to be quenched than a fire. -- Heraclitus
Corpses are more fit to be thrown out than is dung. -- Heraclitus
It is by disease that health is pleasant; by evil that good is pleasant; by hunger, satiety; by weariness, rest. -- Heraclitus
Nature is wont to hide herself. -- Heraclitus
The eyes are more exact witnesses than the ears. -- Heraclitus
Wisdom is one thing, to know how to make true judgment, how all things are steered through all things. -- Heraclitus
All entities move and nothing remains still -- Heraclitus
Allow yourself to think only those thoughts that match your principles and can bear the bright light of day. Day by day, your choices, your thoughts, your actions fashion the person you become. Your integrity determines your destiny. -- Heraclitus
The Lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither reveals nor conceals, but gives a sign -- Heraclitus
The people must fight on behalf of the law as though for the city wall. -- Heraclitus
It is better to conceal ignorance. -- Heraclitus
Stupidity is better kept a secret than displayed. -- Heraclitus
There is but one world common for those who are awake, but when men are asleep, each turns away into a world of his own. -- Heraclitus
The world, an entity out of everything,
was created by none of the gods or men,
but was, is and will be eternally living
fire, regularly becoming ignited and reg-
ularly becoming extinguished ... -- Heraclitus
Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.
Nothing endures but change. -- Heraclitus
Greater dooms win greater destinies. -- Heraclitus
Everything flows and nothing stays. -- Heraclitus
Everything is in flux. -- Heraclitus
The poet was a fool
who wanted no conflict
among us, gods
or people.
Harmony needs
low and high,
as progeny needs
man and woman. -- Heraclitus
To me one man is worth ten thousand if he is first-rate. -- Heraclitus
A hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one. -- Heraclitus
The soul is undiscovered
though explored forever
to a depth beyond report. -- Heraclitus
All things come into being by conflict of opposites. -- Heraclitus
To God all things are beautiful and good and just. -- Heraclitus
The only constant in life is change -- Heraclitus
The unexpected connection is more powerful than one that is obvious. -- Heraclitus
Doctors cut, burn, and torture the sick, and then demand of them an undeserved fee for such services. -- Heraclitus
You won't discover the limits of the soul, however far you go. -- Heraclitus
What are men? Mortal gods.
What are gods? Immortal men. -- Heraclitus
there is nothing permanent except change-- -- Heraclitus
When men dream, each has his own world. When they are awake, they have a common world. -- Heraclitus
Things of which there is sight, hearing, apprehension, these I prefer. -- Heraclitus
Thinking is common to all. -- Heraclitus
Everything changes and nothing stands still. -- Heraclitus
Presumption must be quenched even more than a fire. -- Heraclitus
The universal cosmic process was not created by any god or man. -- Heraclitus
The gods are immortal men, and men are mortal gods. -- Heraclitus
The Aeon is a child at play with colored balls.
(translation/paraphrase: Terence McKenna) -- Heraclitus
Traveling on every path, you will not find the boundaries of soul by going; so deep is its measure. -- Heraclitus
Men who wish to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details. -- Heraclitus
To God all things are fair and good and right, but men hold some things wrong and some right. -- Heraclitus
A dry soul is wisest and best. -- Heraclitus
History is a child building a sandcastle by the sea, and that child is the whole majesty of man's power in the world. -- Heraclitus
It ever was, and is, and shall be, ever-living fire, in measures being kindled and in measures going out. -- Heraclitus
Man is on earth as in an egg. -- Heraclitus
The sun is the width of a human foot. -- Heraclitus
If it were not for injustice, men would not know justice. -- Heraclitus
It is wise to agree that all things are one. -- Heraclitus
Dog bark at what they don't understand. -- Heraclitus
Day by day, what you do is who you become. -- Heraclitus
What is divine escapes men's notice because of their incredulity. -- Heraclitus
We must realize that war is universal and strife is justice, and that all things come into the world and pass away through strife. -- Heraclitus
War is the father of all things. -- 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
All things come out of the one, and the one out of all things. -- Heraclitus
Nothing is, everything is becoming. -- Heraclitus
Character is our destiny. -- Heraclitus
Dogs, also, bark at what they do not know. -- Heraclitus
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. -- Heraclitus
Those unmindful when they hear, for all they make of their intelligence, may be regarded as the walking dead. -- Heraclitus
What was scattered, gathers.
What was gathered, blows away -- Heraclitus
It is wise to listen, not to me but to the Word, and to confess that all things are one. -- Heraclitus
Wisdom consists in speaking and acting the truth. -- Heraclitus
One ought not to act and speak like people asleep. -- Heraclitus
The only thing constant is change -- Heraclitus
The chain of wedlock is so heavy that it takes two to carry it - and sometimes three. -- Heraclitus
It is weariness to keep toiling at the same things so that one becomes ruled by them. -- Heraclitus
What opposes unites, and the finest attunement stems from things bearing in opposite directions, and all things come about by strife. -- Heraclitus
Those who love wisdom must investigate many things -- Heraclitus
The hidden harmony is better than the obvious. -- Heraclitus
We are most nearly ourselves when we achieve the seriousness of the child at play. -- Heraclitus
Men who love wisdom should acquaint themselves with a great many particulars. -- Heraclitus
Give me one man
from among ten thousand
if he is the best -- Heraclitus
It is difficult to fight against anger; for a man will buy revenge with his soul. -- Heraclitus
The only constant is change. Unless you get a small group of neighbors together to stop it. -- Heraclitus
All things come into being through opposition and all are in flux like a river -- Heraclitus
I am what libraries and librarians have made me, with little assistance from a professor of Greek and poets. -- Heraclitus
You may travel far and wide but never will you find the boundaries of the soul. -- Heraclitus
Bigotry is the sacred disease. -- Heraclitus
The Cosmos was not made by gods but always was and is eternal fire. -- Heraclitus
Under the comb, the tangle and the straight path are the same. -- Heraclitus
Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play. -- Heraclitus
A man's character is his guardian divinity. -- Heraclitus
It is hard to contend against one's heart's desire; for whatever it wishes to have it buys at the cost of soul. -- Heraclitus
Things keep their secrets. -- Heraclitus
It is in changing that things find purpose. -- Heraclitus
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. -- Heraclitus
Religion is a disease, but it is a noble disease. -- Heraclitus
The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle. -- Heraclitus
Without injustices,
the name of justice
would mean what? -- Heraclitus
The river where you set your foot just now is gone-those waters give way to this, now this. -- Heraclitus
Knowledge is not intelligence. -- Heraclitus
Man, like a light in the night, is kindled and put out. -- Heraclitus
He who hears not me but the logos will say: All is one. -- Heraclitus
The unlike is joined together, and from differences results the most beautiful harmony. -- Heraclitus
Time is a child playing with droughts. The lordship is to the child. -- Heraclitus
The world is nothing but a great desire to live and a great dissatisfaction with living. -- Heraclitus
The awake share a common world, but the asleep turn aside into private worlds. -- Heraclitus
Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character. -- Heraclitus
All things flow, nothing abides. -- Heraclitus
Silence, healing. -- Heraclitus
Ever-newer waters flow on those who step into the same rivers. -- Heraclitus
And some men are as ignorant of what they do when awake as they are forgetful of what they do when asleep. -- Heraclitus
From out of all the many particulars comes oneness, and out of oneness come all the many particulars. -- Heraclitus
Change is the only constant. -- Heraclitus
The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change - -- Heraclitus
Asses prefer garbage to gold. -- Heraclitus
No one that encounters prosperity does not also encounter danger. -- Heraclitus
Applicants for wisdom
do what I have done:
inquire within -- Heraclitus
Men that love wisdom must be acquainted with very many things indeed. -- Heraclitus
Because it is so unbelievable, the Truth often escapes being known. -- Heraclitus
Learning many things does not teach understanding -- Heraclitus
All things flow, nothing abides. You cannot step into the same river twice, for the waters are continually flowing on. Nothing is permanent except change. -- Heraclitus
Many who have learned from Hesiod the countless names of gods and monsters never understand that night and day are one -- Heraclitus
We circle in the night and we are devoured by fire. -- Heraclitus
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. -- Heraclitus
Invisible harmony is better than visible. -- Heraclitus
Thinking is a sacred disease and sight is deceptive. -- Heraclitus
Eternity is a child playing, playing checkers; the kingdom belongs to a child. -- Heraclitus
Abundance of knowledge does not teach men to be wise. -- Heraclitus
People ought to fight to keep their law as to defend the city s walls. -- Heraclitus
For those who are awake, the Cosmos is One. -- Heraclitus
Those who approach life like a child playing a game, moving and pushing pieces, possess the power of kings. -- Heraclitus
Much learning does not teach sense. -- Heraclitus
What we have caught and what we have killed we have left behind, but what has escaped us we bring with us. -- Heraclitus
There is nothing peranent except change. -- Heraclitus
Nothing is constant except change -- Heraclitus
Nothing endures but change. There is nothing permanent except change. All is flux, nothing stays still. -- Heraclitus
Dogs bark at a person whom they do not know. -- Heraclitus
Could you tell night from day? No, I regard all such distinctions as logically impossible. -- Heraclitus
There is exchange of all things for fire and of fire for all things, as there is of wares for gold and of gold for wares. -- Heraclitus
Ethos anthropoi daimon
a man's character is his fate. -- Heraclitus
How can you hide from what never goes away? -- Heraclitus
Stupidity is doomed,
therefore, to cringe
at every syllable
of wisdom. -- Heraclitus
War is the mother of everything. -- Heraclitus
Character is fate. (Destiny). -- Heraclitus
To do the same thing over and over again is not only boredom: it is to be controlled by rather than to control what you do. -- Heraclitus
Most people do not take heed of the things they encounter, nor do they grasp them even when they have learned about them, although they suppose they do. -- Heraclitus
All things are in a state of flux. -- Heraclitus
What allows us to be human is something daemonic. -- Heraclitus
War is the father and king of all, -- Heraclitus
Wisdom is the oneness of mind that guides and permeated all things. -- Heraclitus
The people should fight for the law as for their city wall. -- Heraclitus
It is in changing that we find purpose. -- Heraclitus
Eternity is like a child playing at draughts; the kingdom belongs to a child. -- Heraclitus
Time is a game played beautifully by children. -- Heraclitus
It is better to hide ignorance, but it is hard to do this when we relax over wine. -- Heraclitus
Nature loves to hide. -- Heraclitus
The path up and down is one and the same. -- Heraclitus
Nothing endures but change. -- Heraclitus
Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Heraclitus
Latent structure is master of obvious structure -- Heraclitus
Those who hear and do not understand are like the deaf. Of them the proverb says: "Present, they are absent." -- Heraclitus
Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy. -- Heraclitus
It is better to conceal ignorance than to expose it. -- Heraclitus
Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing for the known way is an impasse. -- Heraclitus
Even what those with the greatest reputation for knowing it all claim to understand and defend are but opinions. -- Heraclitus
Hide our ignorance as we will, an evening of wine soon reveals it. -- Heraclitus
The results are in great need greater ambition. -- Heraclitus
One cannot step twice in the same river -- Heraclitus
Nature is accustomed to hide itself. -- Heraclitus
The track of writing is straight and crooked. -- Heraclitus
The waking have one common world, but the sleeping turn aside each into a world of his own -- Heraclitus
Though wisdom is common, yet the many live as if they had a wisdom of their own. -- Heraclitus
Even a soul submerged in sleep
is hard at work and helps
make something of the world. -- Heraclitus
It is not appropriate to act and speak like men asleep. -- Heraclitus
Those who are awake all live in the same world. Those who are asleep live in their own worlds. -- Heraclitus
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. -- Heraclitus
Character is fate. -- Heraclitus
You can never step in the same river twice. -- Heraclitus
The seeing have the world in common. -- Heraclitus
