"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." It's credited to Aristotle on mugs, posters and thousands of quote sites. We print it too. But if you go looking for it in Aristotle's surviving works, you won't find it.
The short answer
No, as far as anyone has found, Aristotle didn't write this sentence. It doesn't appear in his surviving texts. It's a modern, tidy phrasing of an idea that's much older than him.
Where "know thyself" really comes from
The idea goes back to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, where the maxim gnōthi seauton, "know thyself", was inscribed. Ancient Greeks treated it as a piece of shared wisdom rather than one person's saying.
Socrates made it famous as a way of life. In Plato's dialogues he returns to it again and again. In the Phaedrus he says he can't yet "know himself" as the Delphic inscription commands, so he has no time to investigate other things. Aristotle, Plato's student, inherited that whole tradition, which is probably why the line drifted onto his name.
Why misattributions happen
A short, wise-sounding sentence plus a famous name travels better than a footnote. Once a quote site credits a line to a big name, others copy it, and within a few years the attribution feels like fact. The same thing has happened to Einstein, Buddha, Marcus Aurelius and many others.
What Aristotle actually wrote about knowing yourself
Aristotle didn't write the poster line, but he did think about self-knowledge. In the Nicomachean Ethics (Book IX), he notes that we are better at observing other people than ourselves, which is one reason he thought good friends matter: a friend is a kind of mirror. It's a less quotable idea than "knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom", but it's genuinely his, and arguably more useful.
Four more famous quotes that aren't what they seem
- "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." Credited to Aristotle everywhere, but it's the historian Will Durant summarising Aristotle in The Story of Philosophy (1926).
- "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Often credited to Plato. It's usually traced to Ian Maclaren, the pen name of the Scottish minister John Watson, around 1897.
- "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Not Einstein. It appears in recovery literature of the early 1980s.
- "The unexamined life is not worth living." One that is genuine: Socrates, in Plato's Apology (38a).
How to check a quote yourself
- Search for the exact words plus "source" or "misattributed". Sites such as Quote Investigator and Wikiquote track the origins of famous lines.
- Look for a book and chapter, not just a name. A real quote can usually be pointed to: Apology 38a, Letters to Lucilius 76, The Little Prince chapter 21.
- Be suspicious of modern wording. If a 2,000-year-old philosopher sounds like a LinkedIn post, it probably is one.
Why we still sell it, honestly labelled
The idea is genuinely ancient and genuinely good. So our print keeps the line, and the product page says plainly that it's attributed to Aristotle, explains the Delphic origin, and points you to the real sources. We think a quote you read every day should be honest about where it comes from.
- "Knowing Yourself Is the Beginning of All Wisdom" print, attributed to Aristotle
- Socrates "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing" print, a popular compression of Plato's Apology 21d
- Confucius "The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name" print, another famous "attributed" line
- The full collection: Philosophy Quote Prints
FAQ
Did Aristotle say "Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom"?
Not in any of his surviving works. It's a modern phrasing of the ancient Greek maxim "know thyself".
Who said "know thyself"?
It was inscribed at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, and Socrates made it central to his philosophy, as recorded by Plato.
Is it wrong to use the quote?
No. The idea is real and very old. Just credit it as "attributed to Aristotle" or as the Delphic maxim.