Know thyself. This statement actually predates Socrates, and was used as an Inscription at the Oracle of Delphi. It is a saying traditionally ascribed to one of the " Seven Sages of Greece ", notably Solon , but accounts vary as to whom. Socrates himself is reported to have quoted it in Plato's dialogue Alcibiades , where he described it as "the Delphian inscription". According to Diogenes Laërtius , Thales was the one who first stated it.