There is no self-knowledge but an historical one. No one knows what he himself is who does not know his fellow men, especially the most prominent one of the community, the master's master, the genius of the age.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Self-knowledge comes from knowing other men.
I think self-knowledge is the rarest trait in a human being.
A man can only attain knowledge with the help of those who possess it. This must be understood from the very beginning. One must learn from him who knows.
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
'Know,' says a wise writer, the historian of kings, 'Know the men that are to be trusted'; but how is this to be? The possession of knowledge involves both time and opportunities. Neither of these are 'handservants at command.'
He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men's heads.
The only knowledge which satisfies us is one which is subject to no external standards but springs from the inner life of the personality.
Who hath not known ill fortune, never knew himself, or his own virtue.
Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.
The one self-knowledge worth having is to know one's own mind.