Heraclitus of Ephesus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher; a native of the Greek city Ephesus; Ionia; on the coast of Asia Minor. He was of distinguished parentage. Little is known about his early life and education; but he regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. From the lonely life he led; and still more from the paradoxical nature of his philosophy and his stress upon the needless unconsciousness of humankind; he was called The Obscure and the Weeping Philosopher.