“You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing in.”

— Heraclitus

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Heraclitus 46

pre-Socratic Greek philosopher -535

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“You cannot step twice into the same rivers.”

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.

“Ever-newer waters flow on those who step into the same rivers.”

Heraclitus (-535) pre-Socratic Greek philosopher

Fragment 12
Numbered fragments

“Not only can you not step into the same river twice; it is not even the same you who can’t step into the same river twice. Everything modifies everything. There is no niche in the past waiting for him to come back and occupy it. Nature will tolerate a paradox, but she abhors a vacuum.”

Robert Sheckley (1928–2005) American writer

Slaves of Time (p. 18)
Short fiction, The Robot Who Looked Like Me (1978)

“There are books so alive that you're always afraid that while you weren't reading, the book has gone and changed, has shifted like a river; while you went on living, it went on living too, and like a river moved on and moved away. No one has stepped twice into the same river. But did anyone ever step twice into the same book?”

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)