QuoteProject
In seeking absolute truth we aim at the unattainable and must be content with broken portions.
William Osler
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The pursuit of absolute truth may be impossible, leading us to focus on partial truths instead.

This quote expresses the idea that in our quest for complete understanding and absolute truth, we may encounter the reality that such a goal is beyond our reach. Instead of striving for a perfect and unattainable truth, we should accept and find value in the fragments of understanding we are able to grasp, recognizing that our knowledge will always be incomplete.

Themes

TruthWisdomUnderstandingKnowledgePursuit

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about philosophical concepts, this quote can illustrate our limitations in understanding reality.

More from William Osler

Observe, record, tabulate, communicate. Use your five senses. Learn to see, learn to hear, learn to feel, learn to smell, and know that by practice alone you can become expert.
William OslerRead
There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite as difficult to record an observation in brief and plain language.
William OslerRead
One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.
William OslerRead
No bubble is so iridescent or floats longer than that blown by the successful teacher.
William OslerRead
The young physician starts life with 20 drugs for each disease, and the old physician ends life with one drug for 20 diseases.
William OslerRead
Let each hour of the day have its allotted duty, and cultivate that power of concentration which grows with its exercise.
William OslerRead

Similar quotes

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to external things. Don't wish to be thought to know anything; and even if you appear to be somebody important to others, distrust yourself. For, it is difficult to both keep your faculty of choice in a state conformable to nature, and at the same time acquire external things. But while you are careful about the one, you must of necessity neglect the other
EpictetusRead
(Whispered to a novice while standing in front of the convent library) Oh! I would have been sorry to have read all those books...If I had read them, I would have broken my head, and I would have wasted precious time that I could have employed very simply in loving God.
Therese Of LisieuxRead
No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has escaped the kingdom of night.
Elie WieselRead
To avoid discovery I stay on the run. To discover things for myself, I stay on the run.
Jeanette WintersonRead
Come, then, affliction, if my Father wills, and be my frowning friend. A friend that frowns is better than a smiling enemy.
George MacdonaldRead
The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained.
David BohmRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.