Heraclitus was a pre-Socratic Greek  philosopher who lived in Ephesus, which was an important city on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor. Not much is known about his early life and his education, but he did regard himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. He was famous for his insistence on ever-present change in the universe. Heraclitus believed that Hesiod and Pythagoras were lacking understanding even though they were taught. He also believed that Homer and Archilochus deserved to be beaten. Heraclitus hated Athenians and his fellow Ephesians, wishing punishment on them for their wicked ways. He later got dropsy, or edema, and when the physicians he talked to couldn’t prescribe a cure he treated himself with a liniment of cow manure and baking in the sun, which he believed would remove the fluid from his body but he died after a day of treatment.

 

           To me, Heraclitus’s quote “Opposition brings concord: Out of discord comes the fairest harmony” means that there has to be both positive and negative for there to be harmony. Without one, the other would be in control and there would be either an overwhelming amount of good or bad but no balance between the two. I experienced this with my parents because my mom would be kind and caring, or the good and my dad would be caring but also tough on me, or the bad. If I had only my mom or only my dad I would either turn out caring and kind or tough but since I had both of them raising me there was a balance so I turned out both kind and tough.