§ 8. We find in Plutarch one of the principal sources of our fragments. Nearly fifty fragments of Herakleitos are quoted more or less fully in his writings. Many of these quotations consist of a single phrase containing perhaps only a word or two of the original writer, so that they are not of much value for purposes of reconstruction. Sometimes the citation is given in Plutarch’s own words;[115] sometimes there is only a careless allusion, as to Fr. 41, 43, and 120. Even when we seem to have a real quotation, it may be expanded, as in the case of Fr. 108 ap. _Moral._ 143 D compared with _Moral._ 644 F, or Fr. 31 ap. _Moral._ 98 D as compared with _Moral._ 957 A. So I am inclined to regard Fr. 11, 22, and 44 as having been expanded by Plutarch. We cannot therefore place much reliance on the form of Plutarch’s quotations from Herakleitos. As to the source of these quotations we should notice that two of them (Fr. 41 and 45) had been mentioned by Plato, and others (38, 41, 43, and 105) by Aristotle; it is probable that Plutarch quotes these because they were familiar to the readers of Plato and Aristotle. Fr. 20, 22, 24, 25, 34, 44, 75, and 85 occur in Stoic writers, and Plutarch himself refers 91 to the Stoics. Fr. 45-56 are made Stoic in Plutarch by the addition of the word κόσμου (defining ἁρμονίη) which does not appear e.g. in Plato; and Fr. 19, 20, 74, 75, and 87 have a decided Stoic colouring. Thus we may suspect that about half the quotations from Herakleitos were drawn from Stoic sources. On the other hand 78 with its context seems to be based on a considerable passage of Herakleitos, and 11, 12, and 127 have the appearance of careful quotation.