"Morality must be the heart of our existence, if it is to be what it wants to be for us. ... The highest form of philosophy is ethics. Thus all philosophy begins with “I am.” The highest statement of cognition must be an expression of that fact which is the means and ground for all cognition, namely, the goal of the I."

"To get to know a truth properly, one must polemicize it."

"To romanticize the world is to make us aware of the magic, mystery and wonder of the world; it is to educate the senses to see the ordinary as extraordinary, the familiar as strange, the mundane as sacred, the finite as infinite."

"The world must be romanticized. In this way the originary meaning may be found again."

"Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason."

"Blood will stream over Europe until the nations become aware of the frightful madness which drives them in circles. And then, struck by celestial music and made gentle, they approach their former altars all together, hear about the works of peace, and hold a great celebration of peace with fervent tears before the smoking altars."

"Wahrhafte Anarchie ist das Zeugungselement der Religion. Aus der Vernichtung alles Positiven hebt sie ihr glorreiches Haupt als neue Weltstifterin empor..."

"I was still blind, but twinkling stars did dance Throughout my being's limitless expanse, Nothing had yet drawn close, only at distant stages I found myself, a mere suggestion sensed in past and future ages."

"Fate and temperament are two words for one and the same concept."

"Fate and temperament are the names of a concept."

"There are ideal series of events which run parallel with the real ones. They rarely coincide. Men and circumstances generally modify the ideal train of events, so that it seems imperfect, and its consequences are equally imperfect. Thus with the Reformation; instead of Protestantism came Lutheranism."

"Unser Leben ist kein Traum, aber es soll und wird vielleicht einer werden."

"Herakleitos is not a believer in absolute relativity. The process of the world is not merely a circle, but an "upward and downward path.""

"τὰ ὄντα ἰέναι τε πάντα καὶ μένειν οὐδέν"

"πάντα χωρεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει"

"δὶς ἐς τὸν αὐτὸν ποταμὸν οὐκ ἂν ἐμβαίης."

"χαλεπώτερον ἡδονῇ μάχεσθαι ἢ θυμῷ"

"τὴν μεταβολὴν ὁδὸν ἄνω κάτω, τόν τε κόσμον γίνεσθαι κατ' αὐτήν."

"αἰὼν παῖς ἐστι παίζων, πεσσεύων· παιδὸς ἡ βασιληίη."

"# The Cosmos is child's play: a child playing chess as King."

"#* Using English idioms to parallel the original's wordplay."

"# 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."

"#* A very free translation, as quoted in Contemporary Literature in Translation (1976), p. 21"

"# A lifetime is a child playing, playing checkers; the kingdom belongs to a child."

"#* As quoted in The Beginning of All Wisdom: Timeless Advice from the Ancient Greeks (2003) by Steven Stavropoulos, p. 95"

"# Time is a game played beautifully by children."

"#* A free translation, as quoted in Fragments (2001) translated by Brooks Haxton"

"# Lifetime is a child at play, moving pieces in a game. Kingship belongs to the child."

"#* As quoted in The Art and Thought of Heraclitus (1979) translated by Charles H. Kahn"

"χρὴ γὰρ εὖ μάλα πολλῶν ἴστορας φιλοσόφους ἄνδρας εἶναι"

"Πόλεμος πάντων μὲν πατήρ ἐστι πάντων δὲ βασιλεύς, καὶ τοὺς μὲν θεοὺς ἔδειξε τοὺς δὲ ἀνθρώπους, τοὺς μὲν δούλους ἐποίησε τοὺς δὲ ἐλευθέρους."

"# War is the father and king of all: some he has made gods, and some men; some slaves and some free."

"# War is the father and king of all, and has produced some as gods and some as men, and has made some slaves and some free. (G. T. W. Patrick, 1889)"

"#* Hippolytus, Ref. haer. ix. 9 (Fragment 53). Context: "And that the father of all created things is created and uncreated, the made and the maker, we hear him (Heraclitus) saying, 'War is the father and king of all,' etc.""

"#* Plutarch, de Iside 48, p. 370. Context, see frag. 43."

"#* Proclus in Tim. 54 A (comp. 24 B)."

"#* Compare Chrysippus from Philodem. P. eusebeias, vii. p. 81, Gomperz."

"#* Lucianus, Quomodo hist. conscrib. 2; Idem, Icaromen 8."

"# See also: πόλεμος πάντων μὲν πατήρ ἐστι, πάντων δὲ βασιλεύς"

"# Martin Heidegger, Parmenides (1942–1943)"

"Τίς γὰρ αὐτῶν νόος ἢ φρήν; [δήμων] ἀοιδοῖσι ἕπονται καὶ διδασκάλῳ χρέωνται ὁμίλῳ, οὐκ εἰδότες ὅτι πολλοὶ κακοὶ ὀλίγοι δὲ ἀγαθοί. αἱρεῦνται γὰρ ἓν ἀντία πάντων οἱ ἄριστοι, κλέος ἀέναον θνητῶν, οἱ δὲ πολλοὶ κεκόρηνται ὅκωσπερ κτήνεα."

"# The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle."

"# For what sense or understanding have they? They follow minstrels and take the multitude for a teacher, not knowing that many are bad and few good. For the best men choose one thing above all – immortal glory among mortals; but the masses stuff themselves like cattle. (G.T.W. Patrick, 1889)"

"#: "The passage is restored as above by Bernays (Heraclitea i. p. 34), and Bywater (p. 43), from the following sources:"

"#:* Clement of Alex. Strom. v. 9, p. 682."

"#:* Proclus in Alcib. p. 255 Creuzer, = 525 ed. Cous. ii."