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
Thinking is a sacred disease and sight is deceptive.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Heraclitus suggests that overthinking can lead to confusion, and that appearances can be misleading.
In this quote, Heraclitus reflects on the dual nature of human perception and cognition. He points out that excessive thinking can cloud judgment, referring to it as a 'sacred disease', while also cautioning that what we perceive through our senses may not represent reality accurately. This highlights the importance of critical thinking and the understanding that our perceptions can be influenced by myriad factors, potentially leading us astray.
Themes
ThinkingVisionPerceptionWisdomIllusion
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical lecture discussing the nature of reality.
More from Heraclitus
All quotes βThings of which there is sight, hearing, apprehension, these I prefer.
HeraclitusRead
Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.
HeraclitusRead
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."
HeraclitusRead
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
Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.
HeraclitusRead
Similar quotes
Every word affords me pain. Yet how sweet it would be if I could hear what the flowers have to say about death!
Emile M. CioranRead
Neither failure nor success has the power to change your inner state of Being.
Eckhart TolleRead
If the believers in liberty wish the principles of liberty taught, let them never intrust that instruction to any government; for the nature of government is to become a thing apart, an institution existing for its own sake, preying upon the people, and teaching whatever will tend to keep it secure in its seat.
Voltairine De CleyreRead
Since I am convinced that I wrong no one, I am not likely to wrong myself.
SocratesRead
We must take the profit out of war.
Smedley ButlerRead
I don't believe we have a professional self Monday through Friday and a real self the rest of the time. It is all professional, and it is all personal.
Sheryl SandbergRead