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Heráclito y Diógenes
All the extant fragments of Herakleitos & a collection of Diogenes' words from various sources. Herakleitos' words, 2500 years old, usually appear in English translated by philosophers as makeshift clusters of nouns & verbs which can then be inspected at length. Here they are translated into plain English & allowed to stand naked & unchaperoned in their native archaic Mediterranean light. The practical words of the Athenian street philosopher Diogenes have never before been extracted from the apochryphal anecdotes in which they have come down to us. They are addressed to humanity at large, & are as sharp & pertinent today as when they were admired by Alexander the Great & St Paul.
78 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 501
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449 people want to read
About the author
Heraclitus
63 books785 followersHeraclitus of Ephesus (Greek: Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος,c.535 – c.475 BCE) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor. He was of distinguished parentage. Little is known about his early life and education, but he regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. From the lonely life he led, and still more from the apparently riddled and allegedly paradoxical nature of his philosophy and his stress upon the needless unconsciousness of humankind, he was called "The Obscure" and the "Weeping Philosopher".
Heraclitus was famous for his insistence on ever-present change as being the fundamental essence of the universe, as stated in the famous saying, "No man ever steps in the same river twice". This position was complemented by his stark commitment to a unity of opposites in the world,stating that "the path up and down are one and the same". Through these doctrines Heraclitus characterized all existing entities by pairs of contrary properties, whereby no entity may ever occupy a single state at a single time. This, along with his cryptic utterance that "all entities come to be in accordance with this Logos" (literally, "word", "reason", or "account") has been the subject of numerous interpretations.
Heraclitus was famous for his insistence on ever-present change as being the fundamental essence of the universe, as stated in the famous saying, "No man ever steps in the same river twice". This position was complemented by his stark commitment to a unity of opposites in the world,stating that "the path up and down are one and the same". Through these doctrines Heraclitus characterized all existing entities by pairs of contrary properties, whereby no entity may ever occupy a single state at a single time. This, along with his cryptic utterance that "all entities come to be in accordance with this Logos" (literally, "word", "reason", or "account") has been the subject of numerous interpretations.
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July 30, 2025- Qu'est-ce que tu fais aujourd'hui ?
- Rien.
- Rien du tout ?
- Absolument rien.
- Rien, rien ?!
- Écoute- moi bien, Casse-Tête. Je suis un expert en rien faire.
- Ah...je vois...Mais....comment devient-on expert en rien faire ? Si je peux demander...
- Mais c'est simple. Il faut beaucoup de pratique. Tu commences par ne rien faire un peau chaque jour, et puis tu augmentes progressivement. Et puis...voilà...
- Intéressant...Alors, dis-moi, quelles sont les activités principales d'un expert en rien faire ?
- Eh bien...II y a la contemplation du plafond...l'écoute du silence, la méditation sur le vide...
- Ça a l'air profond..
- Écoute, je vais t'expliquer plus clairement. En fait, tu ne fais rien, mais avec style.
- Aha...maintenant j'ai tout compris...je crois...As-tu des modèles, des inspirations dans ce domaine ?
- Mais bien sûr. Diogéne de Sinope.
- Diogéne ? N'était- il pas celui qui vivait dans un tonneau ?
- Exactement. Il vivait dans un grand pot en céramique, rejetant toutes les formes de luxe et de confort. Il croyait que la vraie liberté venait de la simplicité, autosuffisance, et de ne rien faire.
- Attends, attends.... Es-tu sûr d'avoir bien lu ?
- Mais si. De plus, il est célèbre pour avoir parcouru les rues d'Athènes en plein jour avec une lanterne, disant qu'il cherchait un homme honnête . Il critiquait ouvertement Platon et Alexandre le Grand. Quand Alexandre lui a demandé s'il pouvait faire quelque chose pour lui, Diogéne a simplement répondu : " Ôte-toi de mon soleil ".
- Oh, laaa...Mais, il a trouvé ?
- Quoi ?
- Un homme honnête..
- Un seul. Mais même celui-là venait de rater un braquage dans une boulangerie , tout à cause d'un fichu chaton noir qui lui a coupé la route. Un pauvre chrétien superstitieux.. La boulangerie n'avait plus qu'une baguette et un croissant, d'ailleurs.
- Merde... Mais pourquoi penses-tu qu'il a fait ça à Alexandre?
- Tu réalises que cela aurait été contraire à l'idéologie de ne rien faire, con.
- Ah, bon ??
- Ah oui.
- Alors, si je te demande de faire quelque chose pour moi, me refuseras-tu ?
- Absolument .
- Con !
- Rien.
- Rien du tout ?
- Absolument rien.
- Rien, rien ?!
- Écoute- moi bien, Casse-Tête. Je suis un expert en rien faire.
- Ah...je vois...Mais....comment devient-on expert en rien faire ? Si je peux demander...
- Mais c'est simple. Il faut beaucoup de pratique. Tu commences par ne rien faire un peau chaque jour, et puis tu augmentes progressivement. Et puis...voilà...
- Intéressant...Alors, dis-moi, quelles sont les activités principales d'un expert en rien faire ?
- Eh bien...II y a la contemplation du plafond...l'écoute du silence, la méditation sur le vide...
- Ça a l'air profond..
- Écoute, je vais t'expliquer plus clairement. En fait, tu ne fais rien, mais avec style.
- Aha...maintenant j'ai tout compris...je crois...As-tu des modèles, des inspirations dans ce domaine ?
- Mais bien sûr. Diogéne de Sinope.
- Diogéne ? N'était- il pas celui qui vivait dans un tonneau ?
- Exactement. Il vivait dans un grand pot en céramique, rejetant toutes les formes de luxe et de confort. Il croyait que la vraie liberté venait de la simplicité, autosuffisance, et de ne rien faire.
- Attends, attends.... Es-tu sûr d'avoir bien lu ?
- Mais si. De plus, il est célèbre pour avoir parcouru les rues d'Athènes en plein jour avec une lanterne, disant qu'il cherchait un homme honnête . Il critiquait ouvertement Platon et Alexandre le Grand. Quand Alexandre lui a demandé s'il pouvait faire quelque chose pour lui, Diogéne a simplement répondu : " Ôte-toi de mon soleil ".
- Oh, laaa...Mais, il a trouvé ?
- Quoi ?
- Un homme honnête..
- Un seul. Mais même celui-là venait de rater un braquage dans une boulangerie , tout à cause d'un fichu chaton noir qui lui a coupé la route. Un pauvre chrétien superstitieux.. La boulangerie n'avait plus qu'une baguette et un croissant, d'ailleurs.
- Merde... Mais pourquoi penses-tu qu'il a fait ça à Alexandre?
- Tu réalises que cela aurait été contraire à l'idéologie de ne rien faire, con.
- Ah, bon ??
- Ah oui.
- Alors, si je te demande de faire quelque chose pour moi, me refuseras-tu ?
- Absolument .
- Con !
May 22, 2016
Diogenes of Sinope invented the word cosmopolitan, to designate hismelf a citizen of the world.
Diogenes of Sinope:
"Be careful that your pomade doesn't cause the rest of you to stink."
"In the rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face."
"Even with a lamp in broad daylight I cannot find an honest man."
"I threw my cup away when I saw a child drinking from his hands."
"Go into any whorehouse and learn the worthlessness of the expensive."
"Plato's philosophy is an endless conversation."
"Aristotle dines at King Philip's convenience, Diogenes at his own."
"I pissed on the man who called me a dog. Why was he so surprised?"
"If, as they say, I am only an ignorant man trying to be a philosopher, then that may be what a philosopher is."
"I had my lunch in the courtroom because that's where I was hungry."
"A blush is the color of virtue."
"I was once as young and silly as you are now, but I doubt if you will become as old and wise as I am."
"The greatest beauty of humankind is frankness."
Heraclitus of Ephesus:
"When Homer said that he wished war might disappear from the lives of gods and men, he forgot that without opposition all things would cease to exist."
"If there were no sun, all the other stars together could not dispell the night."
"The most beautiful order of the world is still a random gathering of things insignificant in themselves."
"No matter how many ways you try, you cannot find a boundary to consciousness, so deep in every direction does it extend."
"Bigotry is the disease of the religious."
"The dead body is useless even as manure."
"The mind of man exists in a logial universe but is not itself logical."
"At night we extinguish the lamp and go to sleep; at death our lamp is extinguished and we go to sleep."
"Immortals become mortals, mortals become immortals; they live in each other's death and die in each other's life."
"How can you hide from what never goes away?"
"They pray to statues of gods and heroes much as they would gossip with the wall of a house, understading so little of gods and heroes."
"One man, to my way of thinking, is worth ten thousand, if he's the best of his kind."
"Extinguish pride as quickly as you would a fire."
"Good days and bad days, says Hesiod, forgetting that all days are alike."
"Life is bitter and fatal, yet men cherish it and beget children to suffer the same fate."
"Opposites cooperate. The beautifullest harmonies come from opposition. All things repel eah other."
"Having cut, burned and poisoned the sick, the doctor then submits his bill."
"The same road goes up and down."
"The beginning of a circle is altso its end."
"The river we stepped into is not the river in which we stand."
"A bow is alive only when it kills."
Diogenes of Sinope:
"Be careful that your pomade doesn't cause the rest of you to stink."
"In the rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face."
"Even with a lamp in broad daylight I cannot find an honest man."
"I threw my cup away when I saw a child drinking from his hands."
"Go into any whorehouse and learn the worthlessness of the expensive."
"Plato's philosophy is an endless conversation."
"Aristotle dines at King Philip's convenience, Diogenes at his own."
"I pissed on the man who called me a dog. Why was he so surprised?"
"If, as they say, I am only an ignorant man trying to be a philosopher, then that may be what a philosopher is."
"I had my lunch in the courtroom because that's where I was hungry."
"A blush is the color of virtue."
"I was once as young and silly as you are now, but I doubt if you will become as old and wise as I am."
"The greatest beauty of humankind is frankness."
Heraclitus of Ephesus:
"When Homer said that he wished war might disappear from the lives of gods and men, he forgot that without opposition all things would cease to exist."
"If there were no sun, all the other stars together could not dispell the night."
"The most beautiful order of the world is still a random gathering of things insignificant in themselves."
"No matter how many ways you try, you cannot find a boundary to consciousness, so deep in every direction does it extend."
"Bigotry is the disease of the religious."
"The dead body is useless even as manure."
"The mind of man exists in a logial universe but is not itself logical."
"At night we extinguish the lamp and go to sleep; at death our lamp is extinguished and we go to sleep."
"Immortals become mortals, mortals become immortals; they live in each other's death and die in each other's life."
"How can you hide from what never goes away?"
"They pray to statues of gods and heroes much as they would gossip with the wall of a house, understading so little of gods and heroes."
"One man, to my way of thinking, is worth ten thousand, if he's the best of his kind."
"Extinguish pride as quickly as you would a fire."
"Good days and bad days, says Hesiod, forgetting that all days are alike."
"Life is bitter and fatal, yet men cherish it and beget children to suffer the same fate."
"Opposites cooperate. The beautifullest harmonies come from opposition. All things repel eah other."
"Having cut, burned and poisoned the sick, the doctor then submits his bill."
"The same road goes up and down."
"The beginning of a circle is altso its end."
"The river we stepped into is not the river in which we stand."
"A bow is alive only when it kills."
January 1, 2016
Some fragments that I particularly enjoyed:
Diogenes:
I like how big of a dick this guy was to Plato:
16
"Plato winces when I track dust across his rugs: he knows that I'm walking on his vanity."
27
"When Plato said that if I'd gone to the Sicilian court as I was invited, I wouldn't have to wash lettuce for a living, I replied that if he washed lettuce for a living he wouldn't have had to go to the Sicilian court."
47
"Plato's philosophy is an endless conversation."
Some random quotes I really liked:
7
"I am a citizen of the world."
28
"Philosophy can turn a young man from the love of a beautiful body to the love of a beautiful mind."
Haha, qutie the burn:
37
"We can only explain you, young man, by assuming that your father was drunk the night he begot you."
56
"In the rich man's house, there is no place to spit but in his face."
66
"Even with a lamp in broad daylight I cannot find an honest man."
93
"Beggars get handouts before philosophers because people have some idea of what it's like to be blind and lame."
97
"To own nothing is the beginning of happiness."
Herakleitos:
All the religion bashing quotes are pretty timeless:
56
"Bigotry is the disease of the religious"
63
"The gods' presence in the world goes unnoticed by men who do not believe in the gods."
78
"They cleanse themselves with blood: as if a man fallen into the pigsty should wash himself with slop. To one who does not know what's happening, the religious man at his rites seems to be a man who has lost his mind."
And some other miscellaneous ones I liked:
62
"The mind of a man exists in a logical universe but it is not itself logical."
94
"Life is bitter and fatal, yet men cherish it and beget children to suffer the same fate."
116
"The unseen design of things is more harmonious than the seen."
Diogenes:
I like how big of a dick this guy was to Plato:
16
"Plato winces when I track dust across his rugs: he knows that I'm walking on his vanity."
27
"When Plato said that if I'd gone to the Sicilian court as I was invited, I wouldn't have to wash lettuce for a living, I replied that if he washed lettuce for a living he wouldn't have had to go to the Sicilian court."
47
"Plato's philosophy is an endless conversation."
Some random quotes I really liked:
7
"I am a citizen of the world."
28
"Philosophy can turn a young man from the love of a beautiful body to the love of a beautiful mind."
Haha, qutie the burn:
37
"We can only explain you, young man, by assuming that your father was drunk the night he begot you."
56
"In the rich man's house, there is no place to spit but in his face."
66
"Even with a lamp in broad daylight I cannot find an honest man."
93
"Beggars get handouts before philosophers because people have some idea of what it's like to be blind and lame."
97
"To own nothing is the beginning of happiness."
Herakleitos:
All the religion bashing quotes are pretty timeless:
56
"Bigotry is the disease of the religious"
63
"The gods' presence in the world goes unnoticed by men who do not believe in the gods."
78
"They cleanse themselves with blood: as if a man fallen into the pigsty should wash himself with slop. To one who does not know what's happening, the religious man at his rites seems to be a man who has lost his mind."
And some other miscellaneous ones I liked:
62
"The mind of a man exists in a logical universe but it is not itself logical."
94
"Life is bitter and fatal, yet men cherish it and beget children to suffer the same fate."
116
"The unseen design of things is more harmonious than the seen."
September 19, 2007
Here are Guy Davenport's graceful translations of the few epigrammatic scraps that we have of pre-Socratic Herakleitos and anti-Socratic, proto-crustie Diogenes (they are also collected in his anthology 7 Greeks). The currents of western philosophy are often said to flow from Plato, and thinkers as diverse as T.S. Eliot and Jacques Derrida have tried to abandon ship; Herakleitos would have said that you never wade into the same river twice anyhow.
In a better world, this book would inspire thousands of cross-stitch patterns.
In a better world, this book would inspire thousands of cross-stitch patterns.
November 27, 2009
Such an odd pairing. Herakleitos is a bore, the master of saying the obvious ("Change alone is unchanging") and the odd ("Lightning is the lord of everything"). Diogenes was a rascal: annoying, self-serving, but sometimes so witty, ("I pissed on a man who called me a dog. Why was he so surprised?" and "I have seen the cups on Plato's table, but not his cupness and tableness"). Not surpassingly, reading the first half of these translations was a bore, and the second half an uncomfortable delight.
April 25, 2012
If I had one wish, it would be for the rest of Diogenes to still exist, and for Guy Davenport to translate it. Heraklitos I can take or leave (another reviewer has called him a bore, and I agree, though there are nuggets of value hidden in the captain-obvious dross), but Diogenes always gives my brain a good shaking, which I dig.
September 14, 2012
An interesting pairing of mins, indeed. The Heroclitean fragments were more philosophical and oblique, whereas Diogenes' words came across as (often amusing) aphorisms. Some of my favorites from each:
Heraclitus
6
Knowledge is not intelligence.
24
History is a child building a sand-castle by the sea, and that child is the whole majesty of man's power in the world
52
If every man had exactly what he wanted, he would be no better than he is now.
56
Bigotry is the disease of the religious.
101
Sea water is both fresh and foul: excellent for fish, poison to men.
107
Having cut, burned, and poisoned the sick, the doctor then submits his bill.
Diogenes
10
Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anyone's feelings?
16
Plato winces when I track dust across his rugs: he knows that I'm walking on his vanity.
18
When I die, throw me to the wolves. I'm used to it.
22
Everything is of one substance. It is custom, not reason, that sets the temple apart from the house, mutton from human flesh for the table, bread from vegetable, vegetable from meat.
39
One wrong will not balance another: to be honorable and just is our only defense against men without honor or justice.
56
In the rich man's house there is no place to spit but in his face.
73
I pissed on the man who called me a dog. Why was he so surprised?
109
I've seen Plato's cups and table, but not his cupness and tableness.
Heraclitus
6
Knowledge is not intelligence.
24
History is a child building a sand-castle by the sea, and that child is the whole majesty of man's power in the world
52
If every man had exactly what he wanted, he would be no better than he is now.
56
Bigotry is the disease of the religious.
101
Sea water is both fresh and foul: excellent for fish, poison to men.
107
Having cut, burned, and poisoned the sick, the doctor then submits his bill.
Diogenes
10
Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anyone's feelings?
16
Plato winces when I track dust across his rugs: he knows that I'm walking on his vanity.
18
When I die, throw me to the wolves. I'm used to it.
22
Everything is of one substance. It is custom, not reason, that sets the temple apart from the house, mutton from human flesh for the table, bread from vegetable, vegetable from meat.
39
One wrong will not balance another: to be honorable and just is our only defense against men without honor or justice.
56
In the rich man's house there is no place to spit but in his face.
73
I pissed on the man who called me a dog. Why was he so surprised?
109
I've seen Plato's cups and table, but not his cupness and tableness.
May 14, 2020
Character is fate. Herakleitos, has there been a sentence so short that haunted me so keenly? Diogenes, debaser of the coin comes in hot. The stomach is our life’s Charybdis. Sharp, short and shaking, this collection of aphorisms is pithy and cuts to the core. It would be funny otherwise.
May 22, 2013
"To know the world is to know it in its particular details."
October 31, 2014
Fine as semi-mystical poetry. Too fragmentary to be more than suggestive as philosophy.
May 29, 2016
Diogenes is an absolute madman.
July 25, 2023
I mean. How can you rate 'Character is fate'? A real treat to see 2500 year old ideas - some so recognizable - raining down one after the other. "Practice makes perfect." 4.5. LOL
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January 4, 2026When I left the human world, at first I fell into a void, because my brain had to rewrite itself, even though I had only just separated from humans. That was why it was so painful at the beginning. And instead of music, I heard only silence in solitude. This silence was absolute silence, a kind that carried neither aesthetics nor depth, a silence that isolated. But then I began to adapt. As I grew alienated from humans, I drew closer to non-humans. And I was astonished to realize how vast this world is and how I had failed to notice it for so long, because during the time I spent in the human world, my brain had made the human being the central focal point of everything. On this desolate path I had many companions, and they kept me company without guiding my way. I formed countless friendships with winter, autumn, thunder, wind, rain, fog, mountains, and forests. And because they were not human, I knew that in forming these friendships I would never be betrayed. Non-human things’ friendship is eternal. I no longer want to return to the universe of humans, because here I have discovered a far richer one.
February 16, 2020
Just a really unique read. Diogenes has become something of a hero to some millennials (by which I mean some of the ones I know).
"The only place to spit in a rich man's house is in his face."
What a street punk.
Diogenes 2020.
"The only place to spit in a rich man's house is in his face."
What a street punk.
Diogenes 2020.
April 5, 2023
Kind of a fun, easy read of about 250 sayings from two Greek philosophers, most of which are fully applicable to humanity today, such as "Eyes are better informers than ears," and "Bigotry is the disease of the religious."
March 5, 2024
lao tzu for frat boys
April 30, 2025
Puros factos los de Heráclito
December 22, 2025
Personally disliked translation
August 12, 2024
diogenes'e bayılıyorum ve platonu çok güzel bullyliyor + herakleitos'un din karşıtı söylemlerini okumak fena eğlenceli
July 31, 2018
Heraclitus the immoralist philosophizing with a hammer, confounding moronic seekers of vapid bon mots with his austere 'truisms'. Diogenes the puritanical anarchist with his endless (but quite transparent) moral bravado. This - better than Plato-Aristotle - represents the fundamental binary that unfurls the entire history of Western philosophy.
October 9, 2023
Grade: B++ “Great”
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews