KNOW THEN THYSELF
This isolation
Will bring out the best in us
And also the worst in us
I look forward
To getting to know myself better
But I shall also
Get to know all of you better
And through you too
I shall again know myself better
For better
Or for worse
For both distance
And closeness
Bring clarity
And perspective
This is only the beginning
Have compassion
So that you can look yourself
In the mirror at the end
And say
I’m human
Though I were to die today
I did not lose
My humanity
This isolation
Will bring out the best in us
And also the worst in us
I look forward
To getting to know myself better
But I shall also
Get to know all of you better
And through you too
I shall again know myself better
For better
Or for worse
For both distance
And closeness
Bring clarity
And perspective
This is only the beginning
Have compassion
So that you can look yourself
In the mirror at the end
And say
I’m human
Though I were to die today
I did not lose
My humanity
Xenophon and Platon both attributed the maxim "Know thyself" to their teacher Sokrates, but in the 3rd century Diogenes Laertius assigned it to the earlier philosopher Thales of Miletus (while noting that Antisthenes, another of Sokrates' students, had claimed that it came from Phemonoe, the 1st priestess at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, who invented the hexameter meter which became the standard epic meter in Greco-Latin Literature.
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