Homo sum, et nihil humani a me alienum puto
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Featured:  Illustration: Portrait fantaisiste du marquis de Sade (1866) by H. Biberstein |
"Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto" ("I am a man, I think nothing human alien to me") is the latin translation of a Greek line from the play "The Self-Tormentor" by New Comedy playwright Menander that Terence adapted. It is translated in English as "I am a man, I consider nothing that is human alien to me."
The quote became a proverb and throughout the ages was quoted by Cicero and Saint Augustine, but most notably by Seneca.
It was quoted in a different form by Dostoyevsky ("But you've only to assume that I, too, am a man /et nihil humanum/" in Crime and Punishment and as "Сатана sum et nihil humanum" in The Brothers Karamazov.
The quote obviously inspired Nietzsche when he wrote Human, All Too Human.
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