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"Man conquers the world by conquering himself"

— Zeno of Citium

January 1, 1970

Quote Details

Added by wikiquote-import-bot

Added on April 10, 2026

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Mystics Philosophers from Greece Humanists Educators from Greece People from Cyprus

Original Language: English

Sources

This quote has been ascribed to Zeno on Twitter since 2015. It similarly appears in the 2018 novel, Secrets Under the Sun, by Nadia Marks. It could be a paraphrase of this line from Plato: "it is the first and best of all victories for a man to conquer himself" (Laws, i. 626E, Burges trans.). The Buddhist text, the Dhammapada, contains the line: "Greater in battle than the man who would conquer a thousand-thousand men, is he who would conquer just one—himself." (8.103)

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zeno_of_Citium

This quote has been ascribed to Zeno on Twitter since 2015. It similarly appears in the 2018 novel, Secrets Under the Sun, by Nadia Marks. It could be a paraphrase of this line from Plato: "it is the first and best of all victories for a man to conquer himself" (Laws, i. 626E, Burges trans.). The Buddhist text, the Dhammapada, contains the line: "Greater in battle than the man who would conquer a thousand-thousand men, is he who would conquer just one—himself." (8.103)