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 zkʻez)

• 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