Quote
All things flow. No man can ever step twice into the same river. How
could he? The second time he tried to step, new waters would have
flowed down from upstream: the water would not be the same.
Neither would the bed and banks be the same, for the constant
erosion would have changed them too. And if the river is the water,
the bed, and the banks, the river is not the same river. Strictly
speaking, there is no river. When common opinion names a river, it
supposes that the name applies to something that will remain there
for a time at least; but the river remains there no time at all. It has
changed while we pronounce its name. There is no river. Worse yet,
you cannot step into the same river twice because you are not there
twice. You too change, and the person who stepped the first time no
longer exists to step the second time. A person is also a river, a
stream of consciousness, as William James called it; and the stream
of consciousness never has the same contents, the same bed or
banks. Persons do not exist.”Share
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