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Heraclitus was known as 'The Obscure' because he spoke in riddles. He distinguished between 'polymathy' (knowing many things) and true understanding. 'Much learning does not teach understanding. ' True wisdom, he argued, is the ability to listen to the 'Logos'—the universal reason that orchestrates the cosmos. He teaches that wisdom is a waking state, while most people live as if they are asleep, trapped in their private worlds.
"To be evenminded is the greatest virtue."
"Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find it."
"Abundance of knowledge does not teach men to be wise."
"Men who love wisdom should acquaint themselves with a great many particulars."
"Eyes are more accurate witnesses than ears."
"Much learning does not teach understanding."
"Couples are wholes and not wholes, what agrees disagrees, the concordant is discordant."
"The waking have one common world, but the sleeping turn aside each into a world of his own."
"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."
"Dogs bark at what they do not understand."
"Wisdom is to speak the truth and act in keeping with its nature."
"Listening not to me but to the Logos it is wise to agree that all things are one."
"Good and ill are one."
"Dogs bark at what they cannot understand."
"Time is a game played beautifully by children."
"It is not better for men to get all they wish to get."
"Abundance is nothing but lack."
"Wisdom is the goal of the soul."
"Thinking is a sacred disease."
"Eyes and ears are bad witnesses for men if they have souls that do not understand their language."
"Stupidity is better kept a secret than displayed."
"Immortals are mortals, mortals immortals, living their death, dying their life."
"Nature loves to hide."
"Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever."
"Hidden harmony is better than obvious."
"Thinking is a shared virtue."
"We must not conjecture at random about the greatest things."
"The path up and the path down are one and the same."
"A dry soul is wisest and best."
"Eyes and ears are poor witnesses to people if they have uncultured souls."
"War is the father of all and the king of all."
"Dogs bark at what they do not know."
"Character is destiny."
"There is nothing permanent except change."
"If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it; for it is hard to be sought out and difficult."
Seeing how Heraclitus approaches Wisdom helps you apply the idea with more precision.
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