I'm having one of days where I woke up tired and will go to bed tired in equal measure. Time for some thoughts about sleep, specifically those of Heraclitus, because why not?
Heraclitus of Ephesus (Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος, Hērákleitos ho Ephésios) was a pre-Socratic Hellenic philosopher who lived from about 535 to about 475 BC. He was a native of the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire. Little is known about his early life and education, but he regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. Heraclitus was and is famous for his insistence on ever-present change as being the fundamental essence of the universe. This is most tellingly stated in his quote: 'No man ever steps in the same river twice'. Not much has been preserved of Heraclitus' teachings. His words are mere fragments in the works of others now. I would like to give you those who relate to his views on sleep and rest today.
Heraclitus of Ephesus (Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος, Hērákleitos ho Ephésios) was a pre-Socratic Hellenic philosopher who lived from about 535 to about 475 BC. He was a native of the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire. Little is known about his early life and education, but he regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. Heraclitus was and is famous for his insistence on ever-present change as being the fundamental essence of the universe. This is most tellingly stated in his quote: 'No man ever steps in the same river twice'. Not much has been preserved of Heraclitus' teachings. His words are mere fragments in the works of others now. I would like to give you those who relate to his views on sleep and rest today.
"Though this Word is true evermore, yet men are as unable to understand it when they hear it for the first time as before they have heard it at all. For, though, all things come to pass in accordance with this Word, men seem as if they had no experience of them, when they make trial of words and deeds such as I set forth, dividing each thing according to its nature and showing how it truly is. But other men know not what they are doing when awake, even as they forget what they do in sleep." [Sextus Empiricus, Against the mathematicians, VII, 132]
"All the things we see when awake are death, even as all we see in slumber are sleep." [Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, III, 3, 21, 1]
"We ought not to act and speak as if we were asleep." [Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, IV, 46]
"Those who are asleep are fellow-workers..." [Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, VI, 42]
"And it is the same thing in us that is quick and dead, awake and asleep, young and old; the former are shifted and become the latter, and the latter in turn are shifted and become the former." [Pseudo-Plutarch, Consolation to Apollonius, 106 E.]
"The waking have one common world, but the sleeping turn aside each into a world of his own." [Plutarch, On superstition, 3, 166 C.]
"It is sickness that makes health pleasant and good; hunger, satiety; weariness, rest." [Stobaeus, Anthology, III, 1, 177]
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