Wisdom knows ignorance is eternal

 

 

 

Whoever cannot seek

the unforeseen sees nothing,

for the known way

is an impasse

 

 

 

 

 

 

The river

where you set

your foot just now

is gone –

those waters giving way to this,

now this

 

 

 

 

 

The soul is undiscovered,

though explored forever

to a depth beyond report

 

 

 

 

Applicants for wisdom

do what I have done:

inquire within

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just as the river where I step

is not the same, and is,

so I am as I am not

 

 

 

 

The harmony past knowing sounds

more deeply than the known.

 

Heraclitus — Fragments

Relativity of Man

The language of a grown man,

to the cosmic powers,

sounds like babytalk to men.

To a god the wisdom

of the wisest man

sounds apish.  Beauty

in a human face

looks apish too.

In everything

we have attained

the excellence of apes.

Fragments from Heraclitus — 6th Century B.C.