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
This world... ever was, and is, and shall be, ever-living Fire, in measures being kindled and in measures going out.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Heraclitus emphasizes the constant change and transformation of the universe, symbolized by fire.
This quote by Heraclitus reflects his belief in the fundamental nature of change and the cyclical processes of existence. By illustrating the world as 'ever-living Fire,' he suggests that everything is in a state of flux, where things are continually created and destroyed, symbolizing the duality of life and the interconnectedness of all phenomena.
Themes
ChangeFireTransformationFluxPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the nature of life, one might quote Heraclitus to illustrate the inevitability of change.
More from Heraclitus
All quotes →Thinking is a sacred disease and sight is deceptive.
HeraclitusRead
Things 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: “Living 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
Similar quotes
Freedom for supporters of the government only, for members of one party only no matter how big its membership may be is no freedom at all. Freedom is always freedom for the man who thinks differently.
Rosa LuxemburgRead
I think one of the great historical contributions of science is to weaken the hold of religion. That's a good thing.
Steven WeinbergRead
The Buddha never intended to make desire itself the problem. When he said craving causes suffering, he was referring not to our natural inclination as living beings to have wants and needs, but to our habit of clinging to experience that must, by nature, pass away.
Tara BrachRead
It might be added that corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.
John Paul StevensRead
I do not know if it has ever been noted before that one of the main characteristics of life is discreteness. Unless a film of flesh envelopes us, we die. Man exists only insofar as he is separated from his surroundings. The cranium is a space-traveler's helmet. Stay inside or you perish. Death is divestment, death is communion. It may be wonderful to mix with the landscape, but to do so is the end of the tender ego.
Vladimir NabokovRead
ATHENA: You wish to be called righteous rather than act right. [...] I say, wrong must not win by technicalities.
AeschylusRead