Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Heraclitus Philosopher

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: Greece
  • Died: 500 BCE

Heraclitus of Ephesus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor. He was of distinguished parentage. Little is known about his early life and education, but he regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. From the lonely life he led, and still more from the riddling and paradoxical nature of his philosophy and his stress upon the needless unconsciousness of humankind, he was called "The Obscure" and the "Weeping Philosopher".

Heraclitus is famous for his insistence on ever-present change in the universe, as stated in the famous saying, "No man ever steps in the same river twice". He believed in the unity of opposites, stating that "the path up and down are one and the same", all existing entities being characterized by pairs of contrary properties. His cryptic utterance that "all entities come to be in accordance with this Logos" has been the subject of numerous interpretations.

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

Nothing endures but change.

There is nothing permanent except change.

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

Change alone is unchanging.

Nature is wont to hide herself.

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

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

The sun is new each day.

Much learning does not teach understanding.