The aphorism "Know Thyself" is seen on a small plaque (with three others) surrounding a small fountain in the courtyard of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose...which attributes it to the Temple of Apollo.
Wikipedia (
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The Ancient Greek aphorism "know thyself" (Greek: ????? sea?t??, transliterated: gnothi seauton; also ... sa?t?? … sauton with the e contracted), is one of the Delphic maxims and was inscribed in the pronaos (forecourt) of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi according to the Greek periegetic (travelogue) writer Pausanias (10.24.1).
The maxim, or aphorism, "know thyself" has had a variety of meanings attributed to it in literature. The Suda, a 10th-century encyclopedia of Greek knowledge, says: "the proverb is applied to those whose boasts exceed what they are", and that "know thyself" is a warning to pay no attention to the opinion of the multitude.
In Latin, the aphorism is generally given as nosce te ipsum or temet nosce.
Attribution[edit]
The aphorism has been attributed to at least the following ancient Greek sages:
Bias of Priene
Chilon of Sparta
Cleobulus of Lindus
Heraclitus
Myson of Chenae
Periander
Pittacus of Mitylene
Pythagoras[citation needed]
Socrates
Solon of Athens
Thales of Miletus
Diogenes Laërtius attributes it to Thales (Lives I.40), but also notes that Antisthenes in his Successions of Philosophers attributes it to Phemonoe, a mythical Greek poetess, though admitting that it was appropriated by Chilon. In a discussion of moderation and self-awareness, the Roman poet Juvenal quotes the phrase in Greek and states that the precept descended e caelo (from heaven) (Satires 11.27). The 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia the Suda, recognized Chilon[16] and Thales as the sources of the maxim "Know Thyself."
The authenticity of all such attributions has been doubted; according to one pair of modern scholars, "The actual authorship of the three maxims set up on the Delphian temple may be left uncertain. Most likely they were popular proverbs, which tended later to be attributed to particular sages."["
Also at this location are plaques with the following quotes:
"Nothing too much."- Temple of Apollo
"No one is wiser than Socartaes for he knows that he knows nothing."- Oracle of Delphi
"Called or uncalled, God iwill be present."- Delphic saying from Thucidides History of the Peloponnesian War.