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wisdom of Silenus

wisdom of Silenus noun: the idea that it is wisest for humans to have never been born, and having been born, it is wisest that they die soon.

Noun

wisdom of Silenus (uncountable)

  1. The idea that it is wisest for humans to have never been born, and having been born, it is wisest that they die soon.
    • 1869 AD, Friedrich Nietzsche The Birth of Tragedy
      "There is an old legend that king Midas for a long time hunted the wise Silenus, the companion of Dionysus, in the forests, without catching him. When Silenus finally fell into the king’s hands, the king asked what was the best thing of all for men...

Questions about wisdom of Silenus

What does wisdom of Silenus mean?
Wisdom of Silenus means the idea that it is wisest for humans to have never been born, and having been born, it is wisest that they die soon.
What part of speech is wisdom of Silenus?
Wisdom of Silenus is a noun.

Words near wisdom of Silenus in the dictionary

  1. Wisconsinites
  2. Wisd.
  3. Wisden
  4. wisdom
  5. Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach
  6. wisdom of Silenus
  7. Wisdom of Solomon
  8. wisdom of the crowd
  9. wisdom teeth
  10. wisdom tooth
  11. wisdome

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wisdom of Silenus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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