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HERACLITUS
The Complete Philosophical
Fragments
William Harris, Prof. Em. Middlebury
College
First, let me proceed with background material on this
amazing thinker, then a translation of all the fragments,
and finally the translated text againalong with a new,
exploratory commentary.
Heraclitus was born at Ephesus of aristocratic parentage
around 540 B.C. and lived until 475 B.C. We know almost
nothing finite about his life, except that he was early
known as difficult of comprehension, hence the nickname
"The Dark One" or in Greek skoteinos. There is no
absolute evidence for a Book of his philosophical ideas, and
the hundred or so "Fragments", which are quoted from
later sources, seem to derive from his personal Sayings or
Counsels, much in the manner of Pythagoras' Symbola.
Strangely many of the cited fragments come from
Christian sources, bent on disproving or ridiculing
Heraclitus' words, a bad effort which has the good effect of
giving us a few more of Heraclitus' precious insights.
In another paper on Pythagoras, I have discussed the
Sayings or Counsels which have had almost no recognition
in the world of Western scholarship. I aimed to get a better
sense of their import by positing a monastic order in
Croton perhaps similar in function to the Zen monasteries
of the period after the 12 th c. A.D., feeling that the
Japanese data may shed some indirect light on the 6th c.
B.C. Pythagorean school. But in dealing with Heraclitus the
situation is entirely different. He had a strong and long-
lasting effect on Greek philosophy in the ancient period,
and has been commented and discussed fervently in
modern times, almost to the point of obscuring the text we
are starting with.
Heraclitus has been studied intensively and in true
academic fashion has been viewed in his historical position,
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as a building block in the development of ancient
philosophy. This is natural in one sense, but objectionable
in another, because we may see him as a link in the chain
of Western Thought, rather than as an independent mind.
When you take up a book to read, you normally read it for
what it is and what it has to say, rather than how it fits into
a niche in the history of writing. I am approaching
Heraclitus in this latter manner, first because I think we
have overloaded the scholarly apparatus regarding his
place in history badly, and second because many of his
thoughts appeal to "the Whole" as he says, and have a
universal, at times modern, meaning.
My purpose here is to take Heraclitus at his word, when he
says "Much learning does not teach understanding,
otherwise it would have taught......... (an impressive array
of modern critics)". I have worked with Heraclitus for
many years in the classroom, and have found many
personal insights into his statements, often occurring years
apart as my own ways of reasoning developed. So I am
going to take the bold step of offering a personal set of
commentaries to the fragmentary statements, thinking of
Heraclitus' insistence on all things being part of an infinite,
regulating Whole, which we often do not perceive at all. At
this end of time I too am searching for the Whole, and
since it is in the same universe with Heraclitus, I make no
apologies for introducing "modern" notions along with the
words of a philosopher now some two and a half millennia
old.
How can I compare Heraclitus with Einstein? Because both
were searching intuitively for "pattern" in the world, and
in Greek times intuition was the only possible way. I
believe that things true in one age are often true in
another, and I am not referring only to matters of law,
human dignity, or poetic insight. We are looking around us
today in the same world as was always there, we have
modified it on the surface a great deal, but the
underpinning and the original questions are largely
unchanged. In this spirit ---accept my commentary.
I have printed the bare translation first so you can read
Heraclitus without interruption, if you wish peruse the
same text down below, with interposed running comment.
HERACLEITOS
THE PATH OF INVESTIGATION
1. Although this Logos is eternally valid, yet men are
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unable to understand it -- not only before hearing it, but
even after they have heard it for the first time. That is to
say, although all things come to pass in accordance with
this Logos, men seem to be quite without any experience
of it - at least if they are judged in the light of such words
and deeds as I am here setting forth.
1a.. (cited as part of the above...) My own method is to
distinguish each thing according to its nature, and to
specify how it behaves; other men, on the contrary, are as
neglectful of what they do when awake as they are when
asleep. (1)
2. We should let ourselves be guided by what is common to
all. Yet, although the Logos is common to all, most men live
as if each of them had a private intelligence of his own. (2)
3. Men who love wisdom should acquaint themselves with
a great many particulars. (35)
4. Seekers after gold dig up much earth and find little. (22)
5. Let us not make arbitrary conjectures about the
greatest matters. (47)
6. Much learning does not teach understanding, otherwise
it would have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, Xenophanes
and Hecataeus. (40)
7. Of those whose discourses I have heard there is not one
who attains to the realization that wisdom stands apart
from all else. (108)
8.. I have searched myself. (101)
9. It pertains to all men to know themselves and to be
temperate. (116)
10. To be temperate is the greatest virtue. Wisdom
consists in speaking and acting the truth, giving heed to
the nature of things. (112)
11.. The things of which there can be sight, hearing, and
learning ---- these are what I especially prize. (55)
12. Eyes are more accurate witnesses than ears. (101a)
13. Eyes and ears are bad witnesses to men having
barbarian souls. (107)
14. One should not act or speak as if he were asleep. (73)
15. The waking have one world. in common, whereas each
sleeper turns away to a private world of his own. (89)
16. Whatever we see when awake is death; when asleep,
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dreams. (21)
17. Nature loves to hide itself (123)
18. The lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither speaks nor
conceals, but gives signs. (93)
19. Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find
truth, for it is hard to discover and hard to attain. (18)
THE IDEA OF THE CONTINUUM
20. Everything flows and nothing abides;. Everything gives
way and nothing stays fixed.
21. You cannot step twice into the same river, for other
waters and yet others go ever flowing on. (91, 12)
22. Cool things become warm, the warm grows cool; the
moist dries, the parched becomes moist. (126)
23. It is in changing that things find repose. (8~)
24. Time is a child moving counters in a game; the royal
power is a child's.(52)
25. War is both father and king of all; some he has shown
forth as gods and others as men, some he has made slaves
and others free. (53)
26. It should be understood that war is the common
condition, that strife is justice, and that all things come to
pass through the compulsion of strife. (80)
27. Homer was wrong in saying, "Would that strife might
perish from amongst gods and men. For if that were to
occur, then all things would cease to exist.
ON NATURE
28. 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.
(90)
29. This universe, which is the same for all, has not been
made by any god or man, but it always has been is, and
will be -- an ever-living fire, kindling itself by regular
measures and going out by regular measures. (30)
30. The phases of fire are craving and satiety. (65)
31. It throws apart and then brings together again; it
advances and retires. (91)
32. The transformations of fire -- first, sea; and of sea, half
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becomes earth and half the lightning-flash. (31)
33. When earth has melted into sea, the resultant amount
is the same as there had been before sea became hardened
into earth. (31,ctd.)
34. Fire lives in the death of earth, air in the death of fire,
water in the death of air, and earth in the death of water.
(76)
35. The thunderbolt pilots all things. (64)
36 The sun is new each day. (6)
37. The sun is the breadth of a man's foot. (3)
38. If there were no sun, the other stars would not suffice
to prevent its being night. (99)
39. The boundary line of evening and morning is the Bear;
and opposite the Bear is the boundary of bright Zeus.
(120)
40. The fairest universe is but a heap of rubbish piled up
at random. (124)
41. Every beast is driven to pasture by a blow (11)
ON THE SPIRITUAL
42. You could not discover the limits of soul, even if you
traveled by every path in order to do so; such is the depth
of its meaning. (45)
43. Soul is the vaporization out of which everything else is
composed; more-over it is the least corporeal of things and
is in ceaseless flux, for the moving world can only be
known by what is in motion. ()
44. Souls are vaporized from what is moist. (12)
45. Soul has its own inner law of growth. (us)
46. A dry soul is wisest and best. (or) The best and wisest
soul is a dry beam of light. (11~)
47. Souls take pleasure in becoming moist. (77)
48. A drunken man has to be led by a boy, whom he
follows stumbling and not knowing whither he goes, for his
soul is moist. (117)
49. It is death to souls to become water, and it is death to
water to become earth. Conversely, water comes into
existence out of earth, and souls out of water. (36)
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50. Even the sacred barley drink separates when it is not
stirred. (125)
51. It is hard to fight against impulsive desire; whatever it
wants it will buy at the cost of the soul. (85~
52. It would not be better if things happened to men just
as they wish. (110)
53. Although it is better to hide our ignorance, this is hard
to do when we relax over wine. (95)
54. A foolish man is a-flutter at every word. (87)
55. Fools, although they hear, are like the deaf: To them
the adage applies that when present they are absent. (34)
56. Bigotry is the sacred disease. (46)
57. Most people do not take heed of the things they
encounter, nor do they grasp them even when they have
learned about them, although they think they do. (17)
58. If all existing things were smoke, it is by smell that we
would distinguish them. (7)
59. In Hades souls perceive by smelling. (98)
60. Corpses are more fit to be thrown out than dung. (96)
ON THE DIVINE
61. Human nature has no real understanding; only the
divine nature has it.(78)
62. Man is not rational; there is intelligence only in what
encompasses him.
63. What is divine escapes men's notice because of their
incredulity. (86)
64. Although intimately connected with the Logos, men
keep setting themselves against it. (72)
65. As in the nighttime a man kindles for himself (haptetai)
a light, so when a living man lies down in death with his
vision extinguished he attaches himself (haptetai) to the
state of death; even as one who has been awake lies down
with his vision extinguished and attaches himself to the
state of Sleep. (26)
66. Immortals become mortals, mortals become
immortals; they live in each other's death and die in each
other's life. (62)
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6?. There await men after death such things as they
neither expect nor have any conception of. (27)
68. They arise into wakefulness and become guardians of
the living and the dead. (63)
69. A man's character is his guardian divinity. (119)
70. Greater dooms win greater destinies. (25)
71. Justice will overtake fabricators of lies and false
witnesses. (28)
72. Fire in its advance will catch all things by surprise and
judge them. (66)
73. How can anyone hide from that which never sets? (16)
74. (When visitors unexpectedly found Heraclitus warming
himself by the cooking fire) Here, too, are gods. (~)
75. They pray to images, much as if they were to talk to
houses; for they do not know what gods and heroes are.
(5)
76. Night-walkers, magicians, bacchantes, revelers, and
participants in the mysteries What are regarded as
mysteries among men are unholy rituals.(14)
77. Their processions and their phallic hymns would be
disgraceful exhibitions were it not that they are done in
honor 0[[sterling]] Dionysos. But Dionysos in whose honor
they rave and hold revels, is the same as Hades. (15)
78e When defiled they purify themselves with blood, as
though one who had stepped into filth were to wash
himself with filth. If any of his fellow-men should perceive
him acting in such a way, they would regard him as mad.
(5,ctd.)
79. The Sibyl with raving mouth utters solemn,
unadorned, unlovely words, but she reaches out over a
thousand years with her voice because of the god within
her. (92)
COUNSELS
80. Thinking is common to all. (113)
81. Men should speak with rational mind and thereby hold
strongly to that which is shared in common ---- as a city
holds on to its law, and even more strongly. For all human
laws are nourished by the one divine law, which prevails as
far as it wishes, suffices for all things, and yet is something
more than they are (114)
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82. The people should fight for their law as for their city
wall. (44)
83. Law involves obeying the counsel of one. (33)
84. To me one man is worth ten thousand if he is first-rate.
(49)
85. The best of men choose one thing in preference to all
else, immortal glory in preference to mortal good; whereas
the masses simply glut themselves like cattle. (29)
86. Gods and men honor those slain in battle. (24)
87. Even those who are most in repute know and maintain
only what is reputed. (28)
88. To extinguish hybris is more needed than to extinguish
a fire. (43)
89. It is weariness to keep toiling at the same things so
that one becomes ruled by them. (84b)
90. Dogs bark at a person whom they do not know. (97)
91. What sort of mind or intelligence have they? They
believe popular folk-tales and follow the crowd as their
teachers, ignoring the adage that the many are bad, the
good are few. (104)
92e Men are deceived in their knowledge of things that are
manifest, even as Homer was who was the wisest of all the
Greeks. For he was even deceived by boys killing lice when
they said to him: What we have seen and grasped, these
we leave behind; whereas what we have not seen and
grasped, these we carry away." (56)
93. Homer deserves to be thrown out of the contests and
flogged and Archilochus too. (42)
94. Hesiod distinguishes good days and evil days, not
knowing that every day is like every other. (106)
95. The Ephesians had better go hang themselves, every
man of them, and leave their city to be governed by
youngsters, for they have banished Hermadorus, the finest
man among them, declaring: "Let us not have anyone
among us who excels the rest; if there should be such a
one, let him go and live else-where." (121)
96. May you have plenty of wealth, you men of Ephesus, in
order that you may be punished for your evil ways (125a)
97. After birth men have the wish to live and to accept
their dooms; then they leave behind them children to
become dooms in their turn. (20)
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THIS PARADOXICAL UNIVERSE
98. Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the
fairest harmony. (8)
99. It is by disease that health is pleasant, by evil that
good is pleasant, by hunger satiety, by weariness rest.
(111)
100. Men would not have known the name of justice if
these things had not occurred. (23)
101. Sea water is at once very pure and very foul: it is
drinkable and healthful for fishes, but undrinkable and
deadly for men. (61)
102. Donkeys would prefer hay to gold. (9)
103. Pigs wash in mud, and domestic fowls in dust or
ashes. (37)
104. The handsomest ape is ugly compared with
humankind; the wisest man appears as an ape when
compared with a god --- in wisdom, in beauty, and in all
other ways. (82, 83)
105. Man is regarded as childish by a spirit (daemon), just
as a boy is by a man. (79)
106. To God all things are beautiful, good, and right. Men,
on the other hand, deem some things right and others
wrong. (102)
107. Doctors cut, burn, and torture the sick, and then
demand of them an undeserved fee for such services. (58)
108. The way up and the way down are one and the same.
(60)
109. In the circumference of the circle the beginning and
the end are common.(103)
110. Into the same rivers we step and do not step. (49a)
Ill. For wool-carders the straight and the winding way are
one and the same. (59)
112. The bones connected by joints are at once a unitary
whole and not a unitary whole. To be in agreement is to
differ; the concordant is the discordant. From out of all the
many particulars comes oneness, and out of oneness comes
all the many particulars. (10)
113. It is one and the same thing to be living and dead,
awake or asleep, young or old. The former aspect in each
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case becomes the latter, and the latter becomes the
former, by sudden unexpected reversal (88)
114. Hesiod, whom so many accept as their wise teacher,
did not even understand the nature of day and night; for
they are one. (57)
115. The name of the bow is life, but its work is death. (48)
116. The hidden harmony is better than the obvious. (54)
117. People do not understand how that which is at
variance with itself agrees with itself. There is a harmony
in the bending back, as in the cases of the bow and the
lyre. (51)
118. Listening not to me but to the Logos, it is wise to
acknowledge that all things are one. (50)
119. Wisdom is one and unique; it is unwilling and yet
willing to be called by the name of Zeus. (32)
120. Wisdom is one ---- to know the intelligence by which
all things are steered through all things. (41)
121. God is day and night, winter and summer, war and
peace, satiety But he undergoes transformations, just as
(............) when mixed with is named according to the
particular aroma which it gives off. (67)
122. The sun will not overstep his measures; if he were to
do so, the Erinnyes, handmaidens of justice, would seek
him out for punishment (94)
123. All things come in their due season. (100)
124.. Even sleepers are workers and collaborators in what
goes on in the universe
Return to Philosophy index
William Harris
Prof. Em. Middlebury College
www.middlebury.edu/~harris