Welcome to our collection of quotes (with shareable picture quotes) by Heraclitus. We hope you enjoy pondering them and that you will share them widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Heraclitus
Flavius Heraclius (Greek: Ἡράκλειος, Iraklios; c. 575 – February 11, 641) was the Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular usurper Phocas.
Heraclius's reign was marked by several military campaigns. The year Heraclius came to power, the empire was threatened on multiple frontiers. Heraclius immediately took charge of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628. The first battles of the campaign ended in defeat for the Byzantines; the Persian army fought their way to the Bosphorus but Constantinople was protected by impenetrable walls and a strong navy, and Heraclius was able to avoid total defeat.
Soon after, he initiated reforms to rebuild and strengthen the military. Heraclius drove the Persians out of Asia Minor and pushed deep into their territory, defeating them decisively in 627 at the Battle of Nineveh. The Persian king Khosrow II was overthrown and executed by his son Kavad II, who soon sued for a peace treaty, agreeing to withdraw from all occupied territory. This way peaceful relations were restored to the two deeply strained empires.
Heraclius lost many of his newly regained lands to the Muslim conquests. Emerging from the Arabian Peninsula, the Muslims quickly conquered the Sasanian Empire. In 634 the Muslims marched into Roman Syria, defeating Heraclius's brother Theodore. Within a short period of time, the Arabs conquered Mesopotamia, Armenia and Egypt.
Heraclius entered diplomatic relations with the Croats and Serbs in the Balkans. He tried to repair the schism in the Christian church in regard to the Monophysites, by promoting a compromise doctrine called Monothelitism. The Church of the East (commonly called Nestorian) was also involved in the process. Eventually this project of unity was rejected by all sides of the dispute.
The Lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither reveals nor conceals, but gives a sign.
Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.
Longer Version:
part of The Cynic Epistles; possibly mistakenly attributed directly to 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.
Those who are awake all live in the same world. Those who are asleep live in their own worlds.
To fight with desire is hard: whatever it wishes it buys at the price of a soul.
If they are gods, why do you lament them? If you lament them, you must no longer regard them as gods.
Everything changes and nothing stands still.
Longer Version:
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.
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.
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.
The only constant in life is change.
Longer Version:
The only constant is change. Unless you get a small group of neighbors together to stop it.
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.
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.
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.
The unlike is joined together, and from differences results the most beautiful harmony.
You cannot step twice into the same river.
Longer Version:
You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing in.
Even a soul submerged in sleep
is hard at work and helps
make something of the world.
The waking have one common world, but the sleeping turn aside each into a world of his own.
Those who approach life like a child playing a game, moving and pushing pieces, possess the power of kings.
The people must fight on behalf of the law as though for the city wall.
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.
And some men are as ignorant of what they do when awake as they are forgetful of what they do when asleep.
Knowledge of divine things for the most part is lost to us by incredulity.
Men who are lovers of wisdom i.e., philosophers must be inquirers into many things.
Immortal mortals, mortal immortals, one living the others death and dying the others life.
Men who love wisdom should acquaint themselves with a great many particulars.
Many who have learned
from Hesiod the countless names
of gods and monsters
never understand
that night and day are one.
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.
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.
For when is death not within our selves? And as Heracleitus says: Living and dead are the same, and so are awake and asleep, young and old. The former when shifted are the latter, and again the latter when shifted are the former.
Lifetime is a child at play, moving pieces in a game. Kingship belongs to the child.
If you do not hope, you will not win that which is not hoped for, since it is unattainable and inaccessible.
One must realize that war is common, and justice strife, and that all things come to be through strife and are so ordained.
Realize that war is common and justice is strife, and that all things come into being and pass away through strife.
Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.
Nothing endures but change.
It is by disease that health is pleasant; by evil that good is pleasant; by hunger, satiety; by weariness, rest.
Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing for the known way is an impasse.
The wise is one only. It is unwilling and willing to be called by the name of Zeus.
Eternity is a child playing, playing checkers; the kingdom belongs to a child.
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.
The river where you set your foot just now is gone-those waters give way to this, now this.
There is harmony in the tension of opposites, as in the case of the bow and lyre.
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.
Everything flows and nothing abides. Everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.
Longer Version:
Everything flows and nothing abides; everything gives way and nothing stays fixed... Cool things become warm, the warm grows cool; the moist dries, the parched becomes moist... It is in changing that things find repose.
To be evenminded is the greatest virtue.
Longer Version:
To be evenminded
is the greatest virtue.
Wisdom is to speak
the truth and act
in keeping with its nature.
If you do not the expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail.
I am what libraries and librarians have made me, with little assistance from a professor of Greek and poets.
Couples are wholes and not wholes, what agrees disagrees, the concordant is discordant. From all things one and from one all things.
To God everything is beautiful, good, and just; humans, however, think some things are unjust and others just.
Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.
Nothing endures but change.
Longer Version:
Nothing endures but change. There is nothing permanent except change. All is flux, nothing stays still.
There is nothing permanent except change.
Longer Version:
There is nothing permanent except change. Nothing is permanent except change. The only constant is change. Change is the only constant. Change alone is unchanging.
Men who wish to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details.
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.
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.
Quotes by Heraclitus are featured in:
Happiness Quotes
Change Quotes
Time Quotes
Wisdom Quotes
Man Quotes
Short Inner Peace Quotes