Thinking is a sacred disease and sight is deceptive.
HeraclitusRead
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.
Interpretation
Good character is developed gradually through consistent efforts over time.
Heraclitus emphasizes that the formation of good character is a slow and steady process that requires ongoing dedication and patience. Rather than being built in a short period, it is cultivated through daily actions and experiences, highlighting the importance of persistent effort in the journey of personal growth.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth, one could use this quote to illustrate the importance of consistency.
Thinking is a sacred disease and sight is deceptive.
Things of which there is sight, hearing, apprehension, these I prefer.
Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.
For when is death not within our selves? And as Heracleitus says: βLiving 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."
Whosoever wishes to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details. Knowledge is not intelligence. In searching for the truth be ready for the unexpected. Change alone is unchanging. The same road goes both up and down. The beginning of a circle is also its end. Not I, but the world says it: all is one. And yet everything comes in season.
Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.
Little hinges swing big doors.
Knowledge is love and light and vision.
He who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles.
As in an explosion, I would erupt with all the wonderful things I saw and understood in this world.
I'm not senile," I snapped. "If I burn the house down it will be on purpose.
Truth always originates in a minority of one, and every custom begins as a broken precedent.
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