| John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919. |
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| NUMBER: | 8883 |
| AUTHOR: | Plutarch (A.D. 46?–A.D. c. 120) |
| QUOTATION: | There are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated to the usages of man’s life: “Know thyself,” 1 and “Nothing too much;” and upon these all other precepts depend. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Consolation to Apollonius. |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
| | Note 1.
See Pope, Quotation 22.
Plutarch ascribes this saying to Plato. It is also ascribed to Pythagoras, Chilo, Thales, Cleobulus, Bias, and Socrates; also to Phemonë, a mythical Greek poetess of the ante-Homeric period. Juvenal (Satire xi. 27) says that this precept descended from heaven. [back] |
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