Heraclitus
Known for his doctrine of flux and change, famously stating 'No man ever steps in the same river twice'.
Most quoted
"The universe is fire, that was always, is always, and will be ever-living fire, kindling in measures and being quenched in measures."
— from Fragments, -500
"The best of men choose one thing in exchange for all, always having a mind to this even as a flame has a mind to the wood it burns."
— from Fragments, -500
"The sea is the purest and the impurest water. Fish can drink it, and it is good for them; to men it is undrinkable and destructive."
— from Fragments
All quotes by Heraclitus (134)
We are and are not.
The bow and the lyre are named from their work.
A man's character is his daemon.
The learning of many things does not teach understanding.
All things come into being through opposition, and all are in flux, like a river.
The soul is a dry light.
The best of men choose one thing above all — everlasting glory among mortals; the mass of them are gorged like beasts.
To be healthy, one must be sick.
The world is an ever-living fire, with measures of it kindling, and measures going out.
The wise is one thing, to know the thought by which all things are steered through all things.
For fire will come and judge and convict all things.
The way of writing is a crooked one.
Man is a child in the presence of God, just as a child is in the presence of a man.
It is better to hide ignorance than to expose it.
The Logos is common to all, but men live as if they had a private understanding.
The people must fight for their law as for their city wall.
The one is made up of all things, and all things issue from the one.
All things are in flux, like a river.
To be awake is to have one common world, but in sleep each turns away to his own private world.
The path of learning is not a straight one.
Contemporaries of Heraclitus
Other Philosophys born within 50 years of Heraclitus (-535–-475).