physician, heal thyself
proverbEtymology Calque of Ancient Greek ἰατρέ, θεράπευσον σεαυτόν (iatré, therápeuson seautón) and Latin medice, cūrā tē ipsum, from Luke 4:23.
1
Idiomatic One should attend to one's own flaws or defects before presuming to advise others about theirs.
- “You are really as bad as Margaret,” she declared. “There is nothing the matter with me. You talk of ‘curing’ me as though I were ill. Physician, heal thyself.”1919, Sax Rohmer, chapter XXI, in Dope:
- Related terms
- charity begins at home, cobbler, keep to your last, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, the pot calling the kettle black, tu quoque