Heraclitus

Pre-SocraticPhilosophy

Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 540–480 BCE) was a Presocratic Greek philosopher renowned for the depth and obscurity of his thought. He conceived reality as constant change, structured by the tension of opposites and governed by the Logos, a universal rational principle. His surviving fragments emphasize becoming, the unity of opposites, and the human difficulty in grasping the true order of the world.

Works (1)

Thoughts (12)

Everything changes

Everything changes and nothing stands still.

Heraclitus

as quoted by Plato in Cratylus, 402a

Unity through opposition

Couples are wholes and not wholes, what agrees disagrees, the concordant is discordant. From all things one and from one all things.

Heraclitus

Fragment 10

One man of worth outweighs ten thousand

Ten thousand do not turn the scale against a single man of worth.

Heraclitus

quoted in Eric Hoffer, Between the Devil and the Dragon (1982)

No river is ever the same

You could not step twice into the same river.

Heraclitus

as quoted in Plato, Cratylus, 402a

Expect the unexpected

He who does not expect will not find out the unexpected, for it is trackless and unexplored.

Heraclitus

Fragment 18

Rivers are never the same

Ever-newer waters flow on those who step into the same rivers.

Heraclitus

Fragment 12

Change is the path of creation

Change he called a pathway up and down, and this determines the birth of the world.

Heraclitus

from Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius, Book IX, section 8II

Wisdom is shared, yet ignored

Though wisdom is common, yet the many live as if they had a wisdom of their own.

Heraclitus

Fragment 2, as quoted in Against the Mathematicians by Sextus Empiricus

All things move

All entities move and nothing remains still.

Heraclitus

as quoted by Plato in Cratylus, 401d

We ignore what surrounds us

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

as quoted in Clement, Stromates, II, 8, 1

Pleasure is the harder battle

It is harder to fight against pleasure than against anger.

Heraclitus

as quoted by Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics, Book II

Few seek immortal glory

The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.
For what sense or understanding have they? They follow minstrels and take the multitude for a teacher, not knowing that many are bad and few good. For the best men choose one thing above all – immortal glory among mortals; but the masses stuff themselves like cattle.

Heraclitus

translation by G.T.W. Patrick, 1889