Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • Early Greek philosopher who maintained that strife and change are the natural conditions of the universe.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun An ancient Greek philosopher.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a presocratic Greek philosopher who said that fire is the origin of all things and that permanence is an illusion as all things are in perpetual flux (circa 500 BC)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin Hēraclītus, from Ancient Greek Ἡράκλειτος (Hērakleitos).

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Examples

  • To paraphrase Heraclitus, what is in conflict actually is consensus, in a harmony of opposites, of tensions.

    Stoicism, Sophistry and Sodomy Hal Duncan 2009

  • To paraphrase Heraclitus, what is in conflict actually is consensus, in a harmony of opposites, of tensions.

    Archive 2009-08-01 Hal Duncan 2009

  • In Novalis the idea of a marriage of the seasons recalls Heraclitus as well as prefiguring the Eternal Return.

    Dictionary of the History of Ideas JEAN WAHL 1968

  • The Stoics (from 300 B.C.) adopted the word logos and the idea of Heraclitus, that the logos is the reasonable order that rules in the world.

    The Johannine Writings 1851-1935 1908

  • A weeping statue was Democritus; another, with grinning mouth, was labelled Heraclitus; an old man with a long beard was Sappho; and an old woman, Avicenna; and so on.

    The Complete Memoirs of Jacques Casanova Giacomo Casanova 1761

  • A weeping statue was Democritus; another, with grinning mouth, was labelled Heraclitus; an old man with a long beard was Sappho; and an old woman, Avicenna; and so on.

    Memoirs of Casanova — Volume 25: Russia and Poland Giacomo Casanova 1761

  • This article began with a quote from Heraclitus which is perhaps applicable to the political situation here in the north: politics is in a state of great flux.

    "THE SDLP’S CHALLENGE" CW 2007

  • This resonates with the ideas of some early Greek philosophers, such as Heraclitus, who maintained that, "All is flux" and "You can't step into the same river twice."

    Daily Dharma: All is flux William Harryman 2007

  • Borges's poem "Heraclitus" translated by Thomas Frick

    Archive 2007-08-01 2007

  • Borges's poem "Heraclitus" translated by Thomas Frick

    Happy Birthday Señor Borges 2007

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