Powerful Heraclitus Quotes on War, Society, and More | Aphorisms

Much learning does not teach understanding. No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man. The eyes are more exact witnesses than the ears. There is nothing permanent except change. The way up and the way down are one and the same. How can you hide from what never goes away? The soul has dyed the color of its thoughts. All things come into being by conflict of opposites. What was scattered gathers. What was gathered blows away. Dogs bark at what they don't understand. No one that encounters prosperity does not also encounter danger. History is a child building a sandcastle by the sea, and that child is the whole majesty of man's power in the world. The soul is undiscovered though explored forever to a depth beyond report. Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Any day stands equal to the rest. The sun is new each day. If you do not expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail. Justice will overtake fabricators of lies and false witnesses. Hide our ignorance as we will, an evening of wine soon reveals 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. Life has the name of life, but in reality it is death. Men who wish to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details. The chain of wedlock is so heavy that it takes two to carry it, and sometimes three. Stupidity is doomed, therefore, to cringe at every syllable of wisdom. Thinking is a sacred disease and sight is deceptive. To be even-minded is the greatest virtue. Wisdom is to speak the truth and act in keeping with its nature. A fool is excited by every word. Everything flows and nothing abides, everything gives way and nothing stays fixed. You cannot step into the same river twice. Man's character is his fate. Wisdom is the oneness of mind that guides and permeates all things. Even a soul submerged in sleep is hard at work and helps make something of the world. The world is nothing but a great desire to live and a great dissatisfaction with living. Men forget where the way leads and what they meet with every day seems strange to them. We should not act and speak like men asleep. Couples are holes and not holes, what agrees disagrees, the concordant is discordant. From all, things one and from one all things. 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. Big results require big ambitions.