Heraclitus (c.535–c.475 BCE,) also spelled Heracleitus and Herakleitos, was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. He is remembered for his cosmology, in which fire forms the basic material principle of an orderly universe.
Born in the Ionian city of Ephesus, Anatolia, now Selçuk in Turkey, into one of the aristocratic families of Ephesus, Heraclitus rejected the political privileges for a life of a misanthropic recluse, living alone in the mountains, eating plants and grass. Little is known about his life—he was known throughout the ancient world as “the Obscure” (“skoteinos.”)
Heraclitus believed that the apparent, unchanging face of the universe veiled a dynamic balance wherein all things were continuously changing, but with opposites preserving the balance—health and disease, good and evil, hot and cold, for example. The fundamental substance uniting all things was fire.
Heraclitus is important as one of the first Greek philosophers to engage in the problem of knowledge, and he is undoubtedly the first to emphasize the importance of an understanding of the soul as a step toward understanding the world order.
The one book Heraclitus wrote is lost. His philosophy survives in the short fragments quoted and attributed to him by later authors. These writings provided much of the theoretical foundation for Stoic philosophy.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Heraclitus
Applicants for wisdom, do what I have done: Inquire within.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Wisdom
Corpses are more fit to be thrown out than is dung.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Death
Dogs bark at a person whom they do not know.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Prejudice
The unlike is joined together, and from differences results the most beautiful harmony.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Harmony
Bigotry is the sacred disease.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Prejudice
Wisdom is one thing, to know how to make true judgment, how all things are steered through all things.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Wisdom
Much knowledge of divine things is lost to us through want of faith.
—Heraclitus
Eyes and ears are bad witnesses for men who have barbarian souls.
—Heraclitus
Nature loves to hide.
—Heraclitus
If you do not the expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Expectation
No one that encounters prosperity does not also encounter danger.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Danger
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Change, Wisdom
Even sleepers are workers and collaborators on what goes on in the universe.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Sleep
Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Harmony, Opposition
Religion is a disease, but it is a noble disease.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Religion
The sun is new each day.
—Heraclitus
Better to be one sided than two faced. Man’s character is his fate.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Character
Men who wish to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Facts
Much learning does not teach understanding.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Education, Understanding, Learning
Everything changes but change itself. Everything flows and nothing remains the same…You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters and yet others go flowing ever on.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Reflection, Past, Water, Opportunity, Change
A hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Philosophy
Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.
—Heraclitus
It is better to hide ignorance, but it is hard to do this when we relax over wine.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Wine
A man’s character is his guardian divinity.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Character
Character is our destiny.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Character
Change alone is unchanging.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Change
Immortal mortals, mortal immortals, one living the others death and dying the others life.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Immortality
We are most nearly ourselves when we achieve the seriousness of the child at play.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Achieve, Accomplishment
Much knowledge of divine things is lost to us through want of faith.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Faith
Everything flows and nothing abides, everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.
—Heraclitus
Topics: Change
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