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 βThinking 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: 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
Similar quotes
Every individual needs revolution, inner division, overthrow of the existing order, and renewal, but not by forcing them upon his neighbors under the hypocritical cloak of Christian love or the sense of social responsibility or any of the other beautiful euphemisms for unconscious urges to personal power.
Carl JungRead
Recently my fingers have developed a prejudice against comparatives. They all follow this pattern: a squirrel is smaller than a tree; a bird is more musical than a tree. Each of us is the strongest one in his or her own skin. Characteristics should take off their hats to one another, instead of spitting in each other's faces.
Bertolt BrechtRead
Begin to see yourself in all other beings.
Deepak ChopraRead
If we open our history books, we shall see that the laws, for all that they are or should be contracts amongst free men, have rarely been anything but the tools of the passions of a few men or the offspring of a fleeting and haphazard necessity.
Cesare BeccariaRead
Teleology is like a mistress to a biologist: he cannot live without her but he's unwilling to be seen with her in public.
John B. S. HaldaneRead
We should cast aside all childish games that fetter and exhaust body, speech and mind._x000D_ _x000D_ Stretching out in inconceivable nonaction, in the unstructured matrix, the actuality of emptiness, _x000D_ _x000D_ where the natural perfection of reality lies, we should gaze at the uncontrived sameness of every experience, _x000D_ _x000D_ all conditioning and ambition resolved with finality.
LongchenpaRead