Heraclitus seems to have been a fairly unpleasant person, contemptuous of both his fellow citizens and of most of his predecessors. Later philosophers commented on the obscurity of his writing style; even the likes of Socrates and Aristotle apparently found his work difficult to understand. The only predecessor he seems not to have completely despised was Teutamus because he had the admirable opinion that 'most men are bad'. He was an anti-democrat, believing that only force will compel people to act for their own good.
He regarded fire as the fundamental substance and thought that everything, like the flames of a fire, is born by the death of something else. He did think that there was unity in the world but that it came from the combination of opposites, from strife.
He believed in war, saying 'War is the father of all and the king of all; and some he has made gods and some men, some bond and some free.' In some ways he seems to be an early fascist.
Connected to these ideas about fire and strife was his conception that the world was in a state of perpetual change. Like Anaximander, he had a concept of cosmic justice which prevented the cosmic strife of opposites ever being concluded. Russell suggests that there are precursors of Hegel's synthesising of opposites here. According to Plato it was Heraclitus who said that 'You cannot step twice into the same river; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you.'
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