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.
HeraclitusRead
The people must fight for their laws as for their walls.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of defending oneβs rights and laws just as one would defend their physical space.
Heraclitus draws a powerful analogy between the defense of one's laws and the defense of one's physical territory. He suggests that just as walls protect our homes and provide safety, laws serve as essential safeguards for our rights and society. The quote implies that individuals have a duty to actively engage in the protection and establishment of their legal rights, highlighting the connection between civic responsibility and the preservation of freedom and order within the community.
Themes
LawsDefenseRightsSocietyCivic Duty
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech advocating for civil rights, one might say this quote to inspire action.
More from Heraclitus
All quotes βThinking is a sacred disease and sight is deceptive.
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Things of which there is sight, hearing, apprehension, these I prefer.
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Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.
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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."
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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.
HeraclitusRead
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Jesus is much more concerned about shaking your foundations, giving you an utterly alternative self image, world image, and God image, and thus reframing your entire reality. Mere inspiration can never do this.
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Reason is the cause of our falsification of the evidence of the senses. In so far as the senses show becoming, passing away, change, they do not lie.
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The primary function of government is to protect the minority of the opulent from the majority of the poor.
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