Quote #55

All men are deceived by the appearances of things, even Homer himself, who was the wisest man in Greece; for he was deceived by boys catching lice, they said to him, 'What we have caught and what we have killed we have left behind, but what has escaped us we bring with us.'

More from Heraclitus

  1. Wisdom is one thing - to know how to make true judgment, how all things are steered through all things.
  2. Where there is no strife there is decay: The mixture which is not shaken decomposes.
  3. We are most nearly ourselves when we achieve the seriousness of the child at play.
  4. War is the father and king of all: some he has made gods, and some men; some slaves and some free.
  5. Uncomprehending when they have heard, they are like the deaf. The saying describes them: though present they are absent.
  6. To God everything is beautiful, good, and just; humans, however, think some things are unjust and others just.
  7. To do the same thing over and over again is not only boredom: it is to be controlled by rather than to control what you do.
  8. There is exchange of all things for fire and of fire for all things, as there is of wares for gold and of gold for wares.

All Heraclitus quotes