Expect the Unexpected

Ever heard about Heraclitus?

He was a Greek philosopher who lived 2,500 years ago. He announced an everlasting Word (Logos) according to which all things are one, in some sense. Opposites are necessary for life, but they are unified in a system of balanced exchanges.

His epigrams (= concise, clever, often paradoxical statements) are often used for creative and new approaches to problem solving.




Reed more about Heraclitus and its epigrams in the book:


Expect the Unexpected or You Won't Find It
by Roger von Oech.

Here are some free translated examples of Heraclitus epigrams.

Choose one for yourself and think about it in relation to the question or problem you like to solve.

Unless you expect the unexpected, you will never find truth.	Every beast is driven to pasture by a blow.
I searched into myself.	Most don’t note the things they encounter, nor grasp them when they note them, though they think they do.
The bones, connected by joints, are at once a whole and not a whole.	It would not be better if things happened to men just as they wished.
The inner nature of things loves to hide.	Even the finest drink separates if not stirred.
Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.	In a circle, the beginning and endpoint are the same.
It is by disease that health is pleasant, by evil good, by hunger satiety, and by weariness rest.	If every thing were smoke, it is by smell that we would distinguish them.
Seekers after gold dig up earth and find little.	It is by changing that things find rest.
The way up and the way down are one and the same.	Dogs will bark at any person they do not know.
Donkeys would prefer hay to gold.	One cannot step into the same river twice.

In this way "always expect the unexpected" becomes a way of enjoying your life !

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