“You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing in.”
Heraclitus (-535) pre-Socratic Greek philosopher
ποταμῷ γὰρ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐμβῆναι δὶς τῷ αὐτῷ
Fragment 91
Plutarch, On the EI at Delphi
Numbered fragments
Variant: You cannot step twice into the same rivers.
“You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing in.”
Heraclitus (-535) pre-Socratic Greek philosopher
Robert Sheckley (1928–2005) American writer
Slaves of Time (p. 18)
Short fiction, The Robot Who Looked Like Me (1978)
Marina Tsvetaeva (1892–1941) Russian poet and writer
Есть книги настолько живые, но все боишься, что, пока не читал, она уже изменилась, как река — сменилась, пока жил — тоже жила, как река — шла и ушла. Никто дважды не вступал в ту же реку. А вступал ли кто дважды в ту же книгу?
Pushkin and Pugachev (1937)
“We never step twice into the same Auden.—HERACLITUS”
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist
“Changes of Attitude and Rhetoric in Auden’s Poetry”, p. 115; epigraph
The Third Book of Criticism (1969)
“Ever-newer waters flow on those who step into the same rivers.”
Heraclitus (-535) pre-Socratic Greek philosopher
Fragment 12
Numbered fragments
Wilson Harris (1921–2018) Guyanese writer
The Four Banks of the River of Space (1990)