know thyself

know thyself

English

Etymology

Calque of Ancient Greek γνῶθι σεαυτόν (gnôthi seautón), one of the Delphic maxims, popularly attributed to various Ancient Greek sages. The proverb in Latin is given as nōsce tē ipsum.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛlf

Proverb

know thyself

1. (also philosophy) Be aware of your own strengths and limitations.
   • 1885, Miguel de Cervantes, chapter XLII, in John Ormsby, transl., Don Quixote, volume 2:

     "Secondly, thou must keep in view what thou art, striving to know thyself, the most difficult thing to know that the mind can imagine. If thou knowest thyself, it will follow thou wilt not puff thyself up like the frog that strove to make himself as large as the ox; if thou dost, the recollection of having kept pigs in thine own country will serve as the ugly feet for the wheel of thy folly."

Translations

be aware of both your strengths and limitations

Arabic: رحم الله امرَأً عرف قدر نفسه‎ Armenian: Old Armenian: ծանի՛ր զքեզ (canír zkʿez) Azerbaijani: özünü tanı Breton: en em anavez da-unan Chinese: Mandarin: 自知 (zh) (zìzhī) Dutch: ken uzelf Esperanto: konu vin mem Finnish: tunne itsesi French: connais-toi toi-même (fr) Galician: coñécete a ti mesmo German: erkenne dich selbst Greek: γνώθι σαυτόν (el) (gnóthi saftón) Ancient: γνῶθι σεαυτόν (gnôthi seautón), γνῶθι σαυτόν (gnôthi sautón) Italian: conosci te stesso Japanese: 汝自身を知れ (なんじじしんをしれ, nanjijishin o shire), 汝自らを知れ (なんじみずからをしれ, nanjimizukara o shire) Korean: 너 자신을 알라 (neo jasineul alla) Latin: nōsce tē ipsum, tēmet nōsce Norwegian: Bokmål: kjenn deg selv Nynorsk: kjenn deg sjølv Persian: خودت رو بشناس‎ (xodat row bešenâs) Polish: poznaj samego siebie Portuguese: conhece-te a ti mesmo, conhece a ti mesmo Punjabi: ਆਪੇ ਨੂੰ ਪਛਾਣੋ (āpe nū̃ pachāṇo) Russian: позна́й самого́ себя́ (poznáj samovó sebjá) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: по̀зна̄ј се̏бе, спо̀зна̄ј се̏бе Roman: pòznāj sȅbe, spòznāj sȅbe Slovak: poznaj sám seba Spanish: conócete a ti mismo Swedish: känn dig själv Turkish: kendini bil Ukrainian: пізна́й само́го себе́ (piznáj samóho sebé)

Further reading

• know thyself on Wikipedia.Wikipedia