■ The Ancient Greek aphorism "know thyself" (Greek: γνῶθι σεαυτόν, transliterated: gnōthi seauton; also ... σαυτόν … sauton with the ε contracted), is one of the Delphic maxims and was the first of three maxims inscribed in the pronaos (forecourt) of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi according to the Greek writer Pausanias (10.24.1).[1] The two maxims that followed "know thyself" were "nothing to excess" and "surety brings ruin".[2] In Latin the phrase, "know thyself," is given as nosce te ipsum[3] or temet nosce.[4]

□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 poet, 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[7] and Thales[12] as the sources of the maxim "Know Thyself."

Allegorical painting from the 17th century with text Nosce te ipsum (know yourself)

One of the last photographs of Lenin. Taken in Gorki after May 15th 1923. Beside him are his sister Anna Ilyinichna Yelizarova-Ulyanova and one of his doctors A. M. Kozhevnikov.