Man know thyself; then thou shalt know the Universe and God
Not Pythagoras: an expanded Delphic maximUnknown (built on the Delphic “Know thyself”)Wording undated · core maxim inscribed at Apollo’s temple, Delphi
Pythagoras left no writings, and no ancient source gives him this line. It expands the anonymous Delphic maxim “Know thyself.” A 1909 English edition of Édouard Schuré’s Pythagoras and the Delphic Mysteries prints a close version, “Know thyself, and thou wilt know the Universe and the Gods,” but credits it to the temple at Delphi, not to Pythagoras.
“Man know thyself; then thou shalt know the Universe and God” popularly credited to Pythagoras, but found in no ancient source; an expanded form of the Delphic maxim “Know thyself.” (Quotle.info)
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Provenance
The closest documented version
Work
Pythagoras and the Delphic Mysteries
Author
Édouard Schuré
Translation
Fred Rothwell (New York: Theosophical Publishing Co., 1909 edition, per Project Gutenberg)
Credited there to
“Inscription on the Temple of Delphi”, not Pythagoras
In its unknown depths, the divine Psyche contemplates with fascinated look all lives and worlds, past and present, and the future joined to them by Eternity. “Know thyself, and thou shalt know the universe of the gods.” Such was the secret of the sages and initiates.
Closest form found, not the popular wording
Schuré’s title-page epigraph reads “Know thyself, and thou wilt know the Universe and the Gods.” and is credited to the “Inscription on the Temple of Delphi.” Yet the same book says the temple pediment read simply “Know thyself.” The popular wording, “Man know thyself; then thou shalt know the Universe and God,” does not appear in this book, and we could not trace it to any identifiable source.
Wikipedia: “No authentic writings of Pythagoras have survived.” Everything he “said” comes to us secondhand. Wikipedia: Pythagoras ↗
“Know thyself” was a Delphic maxim on the Temple of Apollo, traditionally credited to the Seven Sages or to Apollo, and probably a popular proverb at first. Wikipedia: Know thyself ↗
Schuré’s Pythagoras and the Delphic Mysteries (Rothwell translation) opens with “Know thyself, and thou wilt know the Universe and the Gods,” credited to the Delphi temple, not to Pythagoras. Project Gutenberg ↗
Wikiquote lists the exact “Man know thyself” wording under Pythagoras, but sources it only as “quoted in” Peter Cajander’s Fragments of Reality (2006), p. 109. That is a modern book, not an ancient source. Wikiquote: Pythagoras ↗
The exact wording “Man know thyself; then thou shalt know the Universe and God” has no identifiable author or first publication, so we assert no rights status. The related line in Schuré’s Pythagoras and the Delphic Mysteries (Rothwell translation, 1909 New York edition) differs in wording and is credited there to Delphi.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Why Pythagoras gets the credit
The longer “know thyself” saying is credited in different places to Pythagoras and to the Delphic inscription, but neither credit holds up for the wording people quote.
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Popular attributionPythagoras No source
He left no surviving writings (Wikipedia ↗). Wikiquote’s only citation for the line is a 2006 book (Wikiquote ↗), and a 2018 conference paper repeats the credit without giving a source (LU repository ↗). A likely link is that Schuré’s widely read book about Pythagoras opens with the expanded maxim, though it credits Delphi, not Pythagoras. That link is our own inference, not something the book says.
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Expanded inscriptionThe Temple of Apollo at Delphi Only the first half
Schuré credits “Know thyself, and thou wilt know the Universe and the Gods” to the Delphi inscription. Yet his own text says the pediment read only “Know thyself” (Gutenberg ↗), and Wikipedia gives the Delphic maxim as just those two words (Wikipedia ↗). A French quotation site calls the origin of the second half “incertaine”, meaning uncertain (L’Internaute ↗).
✓Only “Know thyself” is ancient, and it belongs to Delphi, not Pythagoras (Wikipedia ↗). The “then thou shalt know the Universe and God” ending is a later expansion whose author is unknown.
Context
An old idea in newer words
The idea behind the line is genuinely ancient, even though the sentence is not. Later readers of the Delphic maxim often argued that knowing yourself and knowing the cosmos go together. Cicero, in De Legibus, describes a man who studies “the heavens, the earth, and the seas” and so arrives at a knowledge of himself, calling this “the warning of the Pythian Apollo” (Wikipedia ↗).
The tidy formula, “know thyself, and thou shalt know the Universe and the Gods,” shows up in esoteric writing such as Schuré’s book on Pythagoras. From there it reached quotation collections, where the speaker changed to Pythagoras and “the Gods” became “God.”
Only “Know thyself” is ancient. The rest was added much later.
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The real source
Where the words come from
DM
Anonymous: the Delphic maxim
Ancient Greek proverb · inscribed at the Temple of Apollo, Delphi
“Know thyself” (gnōthi seauton) was inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Tradition credited it to the Seven Sages of Greece or to Apollo himself, but it probably began as a popular proverb. The second half, “then thou shalt know the Universe and God,” is a later add-on, and we found it in no ancient text.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Closest documented form
Popular attribution to Pythagoras unsourced. Closest documented form: Édouard Schuré, Pythagoras and the Delphic Mysteries, trans. Fred Rothwell (New York: Theosophical Publishing Co., 1909), epigraph: “Know thyself, and thou wilt know the Universe and the Gods,” credited to the “Inscription on the Temple of Delphi.”
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Man know thyself; then thou shalt know the Universe and God’?” Last verified 3 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/man-know-thyself-then-thou-shalt-know-the-universe-and-god/