Know what you are not

Elio D’Anna | The Dreamer

In Greece, the first of the three maxims inscribed in the pronaos of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi famously read — ‘Know thyself and you will know the universe and the gods’, signalling to us that ancient people’s belief that in knowing oneself man could achieve certainty, clarity and strength.

And yet, even the most celebrated and revered philosophical maxim of ancient times reveals itself to be ultimately incomplete:

For how can you ever know yourself?

If you look inside yourself, you can only look at what you are not… you can only observe what you are not — what you ‘are’ you can only ‘Be’!

A more truthful and accurate maxim should therefore not read ‘know thyself’, but really ‘remember thyself… and you will know the universe and the gods”.