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" Ancient tradition had already ascribed this tendency to a specific type of thinker, Heraclitus of Ephesus, for example, who represented the cliché of the weeping philosopher from time immemorial. In fact, the old adage Democritus ridens, Heraclitus flens (Democritus laughs, Heraclitus cries) proves how early people had begun to link the distinctions between schools of thought and philosophical schemes with the contrasts between characteristic humors (in modern parlance, between undertones). "

Peter Sloterdijk , The Art of Philosophy: Wisdom as a Practice


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Peter Sloterdijk quote : Ancient tradition had already ascribed this tendency to a specific type of thinker, Heraclitus of Ephesus, for example, who represented the cliché of the weeping philosopher from time immemorial. In fact, the old adage Democritus ridens, Heraclitus flens (Democritus laughs, Heraclitus cries) proves how early people had begun to link the distinctions between schools of thought and philosophical schemes with the contrasts between characteristic humors (in modern parlance, between undertones).