Part I, Section XXXIV
Christian Morals (first pub. post. 1716)
“He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.”
§ IV
1910s, At the Feet of the Master (1911)
Context: These three great crimes you must avoid, for they are fatal to all progress, because they sin against love. But not only must you thus refrain from evil; you must be active in doing good. You must be so filled with the intense desire of service that you are ever on the watch to render it to all around you — not to man alone, but even to animals and plants. You must render it in small things every day, that the habit may be formed, so that you may not miss the rare opportunity when the great thing offers itself to be done. For if you yearn to be one with God, it is not for your own sake; it is that you may be a channel through which His love may flow to reach your fellow-men.
He who is on the Path exists not for himself, but for others; he has forgotten himself, in order that he may serve them. He is as a pen in the hand of God, through which His thought may flow, and find for itself an expression down here, which without a pen it could not have. Yet at the same time he is also a living plume of fire, raying out upon the world the Divine Love which fills his heart.
The wisdom which enables you to help, the will which directs the wisdom, the love which inspires the will — these are your qualifications. Will, Wisdom and Love are the three aspects of the Logos; and you, who wish to enroll yourselves to serve Him, must show forth these aspects in the world.
“He who offends others, does not secure himself.”
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), X Studies and Sketches for Pictures and Decorations
“He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.”
Variant: He who conquers others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty.
“Who himself cannot control
Why should he o'er others rule?”
Quem não é senhor de si
Porque o será de ninguém?
Farsa dos Físicos (1512?), tr. Aubrey F. G. Bell
In "Tale of the Three Storytelling Machines of King Genius", §3
The Cyberiad (1967)
“But he who neither thinks for himself nor learns from others, is a failure as a man.”
Source: Works and Days and Theogony
Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)
trans. Michael Chase (1995), p. 91
La Philosophie comme manière de vivre (2001)
Context: Only he who is capable of a genuine encounter with the other is capable of an authentic encounter with himself, and the converse is equally true…From this perspective, every spiritual exercise is a dialogue, insofar as it is an exercise of authentic presence, to oneself and to others.
