Parmenides

Ceph.But is to be anything else than participation in existence together with present time, just as was denotes participation in existence together with past time, and will be similar participation together with future time?True.Then the one partakes of time if it partakes of being.Certainly.And the time in which it partakes is always moving forward?Yes.Then it is always growing older than itself, if it moves forward with the time.Certainly.Now, do we not remember that there is something becoming younger when the older becomes older than it?Yes, we do.Then the one, since it becomes older than itself, would become older than a self which becomes younger?There is no doubt of it.Thus the one becomes older and younger than itself.Yes.And it is older (is it not) when in becoming older it is in the present time, between the past and the future; for in going from the past to the future it cannot avoid the present.No, it cannot.Then is it not the case that it ceases to become older when it arrives at the present, and no longer becomes, but actually is older? For while it moves forward it can never be arrested by the present, since that which moves forward touches both the present and the future, letting the present go and seizing upon the future, proceeding or becoming between the two, the present and the future.True.But if everything that is becoming is unable to avoid and pass by the present, then when it reaches the present it always ceases to become and straightway is that which it happens to be becoming.Clearly.The one, then, when in becoming older it reaches the present, ceases to become and straightway is older.Certainly.It therefore is older than that than which it was becoming older; and it was becoming older than itself.Yes.And that which is older is older than that which is younger, is it not?It is.Then the one is younger than itself, when in becoming older it reaches the present.Undoubtedly.But the present is inseparable from the one throughout its whole existence; for it always is now whenever it is.Of course.Always, then, the one is and is becoming younger than itself.So it appears.And is it or does it become for a longer time than itself, or for an equal time?For an equal time.But that which is or becomes for an equal time is of the same age.Of course.But that which is of the same age is neither older nor younger.No.Then the one, since it is and becomes for an equal time with itself, neither is nor becomes older or younger than itself.I agree.Well, then, is it or does it become older or younger than other things?