A familiar Bible saying, checked in context
To thine own self be true
No exact KJV match
This memorable sentence is not an exact KJV verse in the site's index.
By @The..Mustard..Seed · Updated
Read the relevant KJV passage
Proverbs 3:5Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Proverbs 3:6In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Compare the evidence
Jeremiah warns that the heart can be deceitful, a text many readers bring into conversation with advice about trusting oneself.
Jeremiah 17:9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
The next proverb tells a reader not to be wise in one’s own eyes, extending the contrast beyond Proverbs 3:5–6.
Proverbs 3:7Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
What the context adds
This is a documented line from Hamlet, spoken by Polonius to Laertes in Act 1, scene 3. In the play it is part of a long string of parental counsel, not a sentence from the KJV. Proverbs 3:5–6 instead tells a reader to trust the LORD rather than lean on one’s own understanding; verse 7 adds a warning about being wise in one’s own eyes. Jeremiah 17:9 offers a still sharper question about the heart. Quoting the literary source does not settle whether the advice is useful in every case. It does give readers a real origin to compare with the biblical passages often attached to it.
A source for the saying
Polonius speaks the line to Laertes in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act 1, scene 3. The Folger text places it among his longer parting instructions. Read Folger’s Hamlet text ↗
A question to carry forward
How does Polonius’s advice to Laertes differ from the source of trust named in Proverbs 3?
Keep reading
Read Proverbs 3:1–8 alongside Hamlet Act 1, Scene 3, and ask how each speaker frames self-trust.
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