Laudator Temporis Acti

Friedrich Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals 3.8 (tr. Walter Kaufmann):

That which Heraclitus avoided, however, is still the same as that which we shun today: the noise and democratic chatter of the Ephesians, their politics, their latest news of the "Empire," (the Persian, you understand) their market business of "today"—for we philosophers need to be spared one thing above all: everything to do with "today." We reverence what is still, cold, noble, distant, past, and in general everything in the face of which the soul does not have to defend itself and wrap itself up—what one can speak to without speaking aloud.

Das aber, dem Heraklit auswich, ist das Gleiche noch, dem wir jetzt aus dem Wege gehn: der Lärm und das Demokraten-Geschwätz der Ephesier, ihre Politik, ihre Neuigkeiten vom „Reich“ (Persien, man versteht mich), ihr Markt-Kram von „Heute,“—denn wir Philosophen brauchen zu allererst vor Einem Ruhe: vor allem „Heute.“ Wir verehren das Stille, das Kalte, das Vornehme, das Ferne, das Vergangne, Jegliches überhaupt, bei dessen Aspekt die Seele sich nicht zu vertheidigen und zuzuschnüren hat,—Etwas, mit dem man reden kann, ohne laut zu reden.

Diogenes Laertius 9.1.2-3 (on Heraclitus; tr. R.D. Hicks):

And when he was requested by them to make laws, he scorned the request because the state was already in the grip of a bad constitution. He would retire to the temple of Artemis and play at knuckle-bones with the boys; and when the Ephesians stood round him and looked on, "Why, you rascals," he said, "are you astonished? Is it not better to do this than to take part in your civil life?"

ἀξιούμενος δὲ καὶ νόμους θεῖναι πρὸς αὐτῶν ὑπερεῖδε διὰ τὸ ἤδη κεκρατῆσθαι τῇ πονηρᾷ πολιτείᾳ τὴν πόλιν. ἀναχωρήσας δ᾿ εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος μετὰ τῶν παίδων ἠστραγάλιζε· περιστάντων δ᾿ αὐτὸν τῶν Ἐφεσίων, "τί, ὦ κάκιστοι, θαυμάζετε;" εἶπεν· "ἢ οὐ κρεῖττον τοῦτο ποιεῖν ἢ μεθ᾿ ὑμῶν πολιτεύεσθαι;"