“No one ever steps in the same river twice”

Heraclitus (Greek: Ἡράκλειτος), a philosopher of ancient Greece, once said: “No one ever steps in the same river twice”. The first person who translated it into Vietnamese rendered it as “No one bathes twice in the same river,” and the phrase remains unchanged in my language. The first time I heard this quote, I was fifteen or sixteen. My youthful mind took it literally and dismissed it as absurd and hollow. I had clearly bathed in the same spot more than a hundred times. Only now—another fifteen or sixteen years later—do I begin to see the “river” that has flowed through my life.

“No one ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and they are not the same person” – Heraclitus.

In my early attempts to understand this saying, I encountered an interpretation that many still hold today: “No one makes the same mistake twice; only a fool would let themselves do so.” At first glance, this seems reasonable. The keywords are kept, and the act of repeating a mistake does seem foolish. But Heraclitus wasn’t criticizing human choices. This thinker devoted his life to philosophical inquiry—to explaining the nature of the world. This quote, like his other works, serves that purpose.

“for it’s not the same river”

One of Heraclitus’s core ideas is the constant motion and transformation of all things. In general, this seems to be an obvious notion because no physical thing lasts forever without decay. In a river, scientifically, the materials in a specific location are always changing. That is why scientists have to repeat their measurements and water samples over time. A more visualized example is that rivers erode soil from one side and deposit alluvium on the other, thus shifting their course. That is to say, the scene we once observed will inevitably change.

And we, like rivers, change with the years; we grow up from babies and then age. I have now arrived at a new horizon, perhaps the farthest place on our planet that I can go from my homeland, halfway around the Earth. I have achieved the dreams of my youth. To my sixteen-year-old self, this was the final destination, and surely I must now be fulfilled. But I am not…

“and they are not the same person”

I now have new desires and wishes.

Over time, we change not only physically, but spiritually as a whole. Life’s experiences shape each person’s unique perception of the world. There are over eight billion people in this world, still each individual becomes a unique being. Even within ourselves, at every moment, we evolve into a different identity. The “me” of now is no longer the “me” of a second ago.

I see my own transformation. Things I once believed to be true now seem false. Ideas I thought I understood now feel unfamiliar. Purposes that were certain now no longer be pursued. And I am quite sure that even the views I hold right now may change—years from now, or even in the next second. This constant motion opens new doors for our journey. No matter what the past held, the road ahead offers countless new doors. Yet the uncertainty of these possibilities often leaves me restless and anxious.

[wrote in an evening in the Appalachian Mountains, USA]