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| “Of those who first pursued philosophy, the majority believed that the only principles of all things are principles [archai] in the form of matter. For that of which all existing things are composed and that out of which they originally come into being and that into which they finally perish, the substance persisting but changing in its attributes, this they state is the element and principle of things that are…For there must be one or more than one nature [phusis] out of which the rest come to be, while it is preserved.” |
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“No man has seen nor will anyone know
the truth about the gods and all the things I speak of.
For even if a person should in fact say what is absolutely the case,
nevertheless he himself does not know, but belief is fashioned
over all things [or, in the case of all persons].” |
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| “This logos holds always but humans always prove unable to understand it, both before hearing it and when they have first heard it. For though all things come to be [or, happen] in accordance with this logos, humans are like the inexperienced when they experience such words and deeds as I set out, distinguishing each in accordance with its nature and saying how it is. But other people fail to notice what they do when awake, just as they forget what they do while asleep.” |
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| “Eyes and ears are bad witnesses to people if they have barbarian souls.” (B107) |
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| “The Lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither speaks nor conceals, but gives a sign.” |
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| “The sea is the purest and most polluted water: to fishes drinkable and bringing safety, to humans undrinkable and destructive. |
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| “The path up and down is one and the same.” |
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| “Disease makes health pleasant and good, hunger satiety, weariness rest.” |
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| “The same thing is both living and dead, waking and sleeping, young and old; for these things transformed are those, and those transformed back again are these. |
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| “Nature [phusis] loves to hide.” |
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| “An unapparent connection is stronger than an apparent one. |
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| “They do not understand how, though at variance with itself, it agrees with itself. It is a back-stretched connection like that of the bow and lyre.” |
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| “Things taken together are wholes and not wholes, something which is being brought together and brought apart, which is in tune and out of tune; out of all things there comes a unity, and out of a unity all things. |
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| “God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, satiety and hunger, but changes, the way [fire,] when mingled with perfumes, is named according to the scent of each.” |
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| “What is opposed brings together; the finest harmony [harmonia] is composed of things at variance, and everything comes to be in accordance with strife. |
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| “It is necessary to know that war is common and justice [dikē] is strife and that all things happen by strife and necessity. |
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| “War is the father of all and king of all, and some he shows as gods, others as men; some he makes slaves, others free. |
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| “War is the father of all and king of all, and some he shows as gods, others as men; some he makes slaves, others free. |
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| “The cosmos, the same for all, none of the gods nor humans has made, but it was always and is and shall be: an ever-living fire being kindled in measures and being extinguished in measures.” (22B30) |
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| “Thunderbolt steers all things.” |
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| “Listening not to me but to the logos it is wise to agree that all things are one.” |
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| “For this reason it is necessary to follow what is common. But although the logos is common, most people live as if they had their own private understanding.” |
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| “ Heraclitus, I believe, says that all things pass and nothing stays, and comparing existing things to the flow of a river, he says you could not step twice into the same river.” (Cratylus 402a) |
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| “And some say not that some existing things are moving, and not others, but that all things are in motion all the time, but that this escapes our perception.” (Physics, 253b9 |
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| **“Upon those who step into the same rivers, different and again different waters flow.” (frag 12)** |
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| “For souls it is death to become water, for water it is death to become earth; from earth water comes-to-be, and from water, soul.” |
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| “A dry soul is wisest and best.” |
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| “You would not find out the boundaries of soul, even by traveling along every path: so deep a measure [logos] does it have.” |
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“…they brought me and proceeded along the renowned road
of the goddess, which brings a knowing mortal to all
cities one by one….” |
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“There are the gates of the roads of Night and Day,
and a lintel and a stone threshold contain them.
High in the sky they are filled by huge doors
Of which avenging Justice holds the keys that fit them.
The maidens beguiled her with soft words
and skillfully persuaded her to push back the bar for them
quickly from the gates….” (lines 11-17) |
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“At this point I stop for you my reliable account and thought
concerning Truth; from here on, learn mortal opinions,
listening to the deceitful ordering of my words.
For they made up their minds to name two forms
[what is and what is not]…
and distinguished things opposite in body
[fire and earth]…
I declare to you all the ordering as it appears,
so that no mortal opinion may ever overtake you.” |
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“Nor was it ever nor will it be, since it is now, all together one, continuous.”
Melissus: “Now since it did not come to be, it is and always was and always will be, and does not have a beginning or an end, but is unlimited.” |
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“Remaining the same in the same and by itself it lies and so stays there fixed; for mighty Necessity holds it in the bonds of a limit, which pens it in all round, since it is right for what-is to be not incomplete…”
Melissus: “But just as it always is, so also it must always be unlimited in magnitude." |
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Assume that space is divisible…
If this is so, then any given space you traverse is divisible. But to traverse this space, you first had to cross the midpoint of it. But before this happened, you had to first cross the midpoint of this space. Indeed, there will be an infinite number of these midpoints to cross, and you will have had to take some time to cross each of them. Thus, you could never have traversed the space. |
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Assume that time is divisible into different “nows”…
If this is so, consider an arrow moving through the air: at any given moment in time, it is in a space exactly equal to its own length, and therefore is at rest at that moment. So, it's at rest at all moments. The sum of an infinite number of these positions of complete rest will still be rest, not motion. Therefore, the arrow is not moving. |
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| “On account of their [the senses’] feebleness we are unable to discern the truth." |
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True beliefs are never found in the “bastard judgments” of sense perception
The qualities we perceive (sweetness, bitterness, heat, coldness, colors) are merely conventions [nomoi]; in reality (in nature [phusis]) there are only atoms and void. |
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| “A human being is the measure of what is, that it is, and of what is not, that it is not. |
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| “There are two opposing arguments [logoi] concerning everything.” |
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| “To make the weaker argument [logos] the stronger.” |
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| “Speech is a powerful lord, which by means of the finest and most invisible body effects the divinest works…The effect of speech upon the condition of the soul is comparable to the power of drugs over the nature of bodies. |
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| “To make the weaker argument [logos] the stronger.” |
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Definition
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| “Speech is a powerful lord, which by means of the finest and most invisible body effects the divinest works…The effect of speech upon the condition of the soul is comparable to the power of drugs over the nature of bodies. |
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