Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Kirok]

I retired last year and as a sometime editor or 'zines and blogger, now is the time for me to pursue fame and, more likely infamy with a perzine (yes, it's a word). One of the regular articles is a thought experiment. I threw one together for the first edition on the nature of change and it introduced me to the maxims of François de La Rochefoucauld. I was hoping to get some help tracing the source of his quote, “The only thing constant in life is change”. I've used search on the originals in Gutenberg Press and can't find anything like it.

Where would be the correct place in the forum to ask that question? Hopefully I shall interact more in the future.

Regards

Kirok of L'Stok
A legend in his own mind.

[Burning ghost]

I have a feeling it was Oscar Wilde? I may be mistaken though.

[Burning ghost]

Not quite as it turns out:

“The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes. Change is the one quality we can predicate of it.”
― Oscar Wilde

I imagine something like this has been written someone somewhere since writing began. Hericlitus being the earliest one I can think of with:

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man

[Kirok]

Thanks - what I have, after a fascinating webcrawl, is ...

[Snip]
Take, for example, the observation that change is inevitable. Disraeli said it but the concept is not new, it has been postulated many famous minds. François de La Rochefoucauld said, “The only thing constant in life is change” but it goes all the way back to the original 'grumpy old man', Heraclitus of Ephesus, “the only thing that is constant is change.”
[Ensnip]

Sources:
Disraeli - http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/29768.html
Heraclitus - https://www.ancient.eu/Heraclitus_of_Ephesos/

I had this from Lao Tzu, "Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow" as well but Wikiquote says it is misattributed - https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Laozi

I went searching for the source of “The only thing constant in life is change” in de La Rochefoucauld's Maxim's but I can't find it even though it is often attributed to him. It could perhaps be a translation problem from the original French? There's nothing like it here...
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9105

Perhaps it is in another work of his?

K

PS - Nice quote from Heractitus