Fragments
It is wise for those who hear, not me, but the universal Reason, to confess that all things are one.
This world, the same for all, neither any of the gods nor any man has made, but it always was, and is, and shall be, an ever living fire, kindled in due measure, and in due measure extinguished.
Into the same river you could not step twice, for other <and still other> waters are flowing.
Everything flows and nothing abides; everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.
It is one and the same thing to be living and dead, awake or asleep, young or old. The former aspect in each case becomes the latter, and the latter becomes the former, by sudden unexpected reversal.
To God all things are beautiful, good, and right; men, on the other hand, deem some things right and others wrong.
“All things are in flux; the flux is subject to a unifying measure or rational principle. This principle (logos, the hidden harmony behind all change) bound opposites together in a unified tension, which is like that of a lyre, where a stable harmonious sound emerges from the tension of the opposing forces that arise from the bow bound together by the string.”
“Change is the only constant.”
“The poet was a fool who wanted no conflict among us, gods or people.
Harmony needs low and high, as progeny needs man and woman.”
“Life has the name of life, but in reality it is death.”
“Even what those with the greatest reputation for knowing it all claim to understand and defend are but opinions.”
“Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.”
Abundance of knowledge does not teach men to be wise.
It is better to hide ignorance, but it is hard to do this when we relax over wine.
The road up and the road down is one and the same.
All things come out of the One and the One out of all things. ... I see nothing but Becoming. Be not deceived! It is the fault of your limited outlook and not the fault of the essence of things if you believe that you see firm land anywhere in the ocean of Becoming and Passing. You need names for things, just as if they had a rigid permanence, but the very river in which you bathe a second time is no longer the same one which you entered before.
And they pray to these images, as if one were to talk with a man's house, knowing not what gods or heroes are.
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