Zoroaster — "The greatest wisdom is to know oneself. The second greatest is to know where you…"
The greatest wisdom is to know oneself. The second greatest is to know where you put your keys.
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More from Zoroaster
"May your spirit soar and your Wi-Fi never fail."
"Harmony with nature is essential for spiritual well-being."
"Indeed, I shall speak forth concerning this world’s two spirits, of which the one is good, the other evil, as to thought, as to word, as to deed. Between these two, the discerning have chosen aright, …"
"I counsel you to always choose the better way. Unless the better way involves a really steep hill. Then, maybe consider a detour."
"Who created light and darkness? Who created sleep and waking?"
About Zoroaster (c. 1500-1000 BCE (debated))
Iranian prophet who founded Zoroastrianism, the first major religion of cosmic dualism between good (Ahura Mazda) and evil (Angra Mainyu). Closely associated with The Buddha (near-contemporary Eastern moral-cosmological revolutionary). For an intellectual contrast, see Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher of 'beyond good and evil' — Nietzsche appropriated Zarathustra's name for Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883) precisely to invert the original's moral cosmology — the historical Zoroaster founded the good-versus-evil framework Nietzsche's character announces the end of.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Real insight starts with understanding your own mind, motives, and limits, because nothing else you learn means much if you do not first know who is doing the learning. The second line is a joke that punctures the first: even the most self-aware person still loses track of ordinary things. Together they say self-knowledge matters most, but stay humble, because daily life keeps reminding you that you are still a forgetful human.
Relevance to Zoroaster
Zoroaster taught that each person must personally choose between truth (asha) and the lie (druj), which requires honest self-examination rather than blind ritual. As a reforming priest who rejected the crowded old Iranian pantheon for one wise god, Ahura Mazda, he put individual conscience at the center of religion. The quote fits his emphasis on inward moral clarity, though the keys punchline is clearly modern humor, not something the historical prophet would have said.
The era
Zoroaster likely lived in Bronze Age eastern Iran, roughly the late second to early first millennium BCE, among semi-nomadic Indo-Iranian tribes whose religion centered on animal sacrifice, warrior gods, and ritual purity overseen by a hereditary priesthood. Literacy was rare and teachings passed through memorized hymns. In that world, telling people that salvation depended on personal ethical choice and self-scrutiny, rather than tribal ritual performed correctly by priests, was a genuinely radical cultural shift.
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