Heraclitus Quotes (58 Quotes)


    The people must fight for their laws as for their walls.

    Eyes and ears are poor witnesses to people if they have uncultured souls.

    There is nothing permanent except change.

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

    No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.



    A man's character is his guardian divinity.

    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.


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

    Man, like a light in the night, is kindled and put out.

    Everything flows and nothing abides everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.

    God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, surfeit and hunger.


    Deliberate violence is more to be quenched than a fire.

    We are most nearly ourselves when we achieve the seriousness of the child at play.

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

    If you do not the expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail.

    The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.

    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.

    It is wise to listen, not to me but to the Word, and to confess that all things are one.

    You cannot step twice into the same stream. For as you are stepping in, other waters are ever flowing on to you.

    The most perfect mind is a dry light.


    Even sleepers are workers and collaborators in what goes on in the Universe.



    War is the father and king of all some he has made gods, and some men some slaves and some free.

    Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.

    Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.

    Much learning does not teach understanding.

    To God all things are beautiful, good, and right human beings, on the other hand, deem some things right and others wrong.

    You cannot step into the same river twice.

    The phases of fire are craving and satiety.

    Justice will overtake fabricators of lies and false witnesses.

    To God everything is beautiful, good, and just; humans, however, think some things are unjust and others just.

    I am what libraries and librarians have made me, with little assistance from a professor of Greek and poets.

    Men who wish to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details.

    Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.

    The chain of wedlock is so heavy that it takes two to carry it - and sometimes three.

    It is hard to contend against one's heart's desire; for whatever it wishes to have it buys at the cost of soul.


    From out of all the many particulars comes oneness, and out of oneness come all the many particulars.

    Corpses are more fit to be thrown out than is dung.




    The way up and the way down are one and the same.

    Hide our ignorance as we will, an evening of wine soon reveals it.

    All is flux, nothing is stationary.


    More Heraclitus Quotations (Based on Topics)


    Man - Characters - Fire - God - Soul - Fate & Destiny - Change - Beauty - War & Peace - Night - Light - Money & Wealth - Fathers - Marriage - Winter - Envy & Jealousy - Listening - Violence - Disagreement & Quarelling - View All Heraclitus Quotations

    Related Authors


    George Santayana - Bertrand Russell - Arthur Schopenhauer - Xenophanes - Soren Kierkegaard - Roger Bacon - Robert M. Pirsig - Mohammad Khatami - Marcus Fabius Quintilian - Epicurus


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