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Another version of this saying – "Know thyself, O man, and thou wilt know thy Lord" – is discussed by Avicenna (980–1037 AD), who attributes it to the ancient Greeks. Although he says that it was written on the temple of Asclepius , rather than the temple of Apollo, it is probable that the Delphic maxim was the ultimate source not only of ...
The three best known maxims – "Know thyself", "Nothing in excess", and "Give a pledge and trouble is at hand" – were prominently located at the entrance to the temple, and were traditionally said to have been authored by the legendary Seven Sages of Greece, or even by Apollo. In fact, they are more likely to have simply been popular proverbs.
Circa 440 BC the Oracle is also said to have claimed that there was no one wiser than Socrates, to which Socrates replied that either all were equally ignorant, or that he was wiser in that he alone was aware of his own ignorance ("what I do not know I do not think I know").
Embrace these quotes from one of the founding fathers of Western philosophy.
This quote emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and questioning one's beliefs, actions, and purpose in life. [2] The words were supposedly spoken by Socrates at his trial after he chose death, rather than exile. They represent (in modern terms) the noble choice, that is, the choice of death in the face of an alternative.
See also Apology 29d, where Socrates indicates that he is so confident in his claim to knowledge at 29b-c that he is willing to die for it. [citation needed] That said, in the Apology, Plato relates that Socrates accounts for his seeming wiser than any other person because he does not imagine that he knows what he does not know. [9]
Socrates has rather ironically said that he did not know for sure whether he was a human being or something else, but in the confessional a Hegelian can say with all solemnity: I do not know whether I am a human being-but I have understood the system. I prefer to say: I know that I am a human being, and I know that I have not understood the system.
He was said to be of Phoenician descent. The ancient biographer Diogenes Laertius attributes the aphorism, "Know thyself", engraved on the front facade of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, to Thales, [2] although there was no ancient consensus on this attribution. Pittacus of Mytilene (c. 640 BCE – c. 568 BCE) governed Mytilene . He tried to ...