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Like all those possessing a library, Aurelian was aware that he was guilty of not knowing his in its entirety.
Jorge Luis Borges
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights the awareness of knowledge gaps even among those who possess vast resources of information.

In this quote, Borges reflects on the irony of possessing a library while simultaneously recognizing the limitations of one's own knowledge. Aurelian's realization serves as a reminder that even with access to extensive information, true understanding often eludes us, emphasizing the value of continuous learning and the acknowledgment of our own ignorance.

Themes

KnowledgeLibraryIgnoranceLearningSelf-Awareness

In practice

Example use cases

During a lecture on the importance of continual education, I would quote this to emphasize our limits in knowledge.

More from Jorge Luis Borges

You can't measure time by days, the way you measure money by dollars and cents, because dollars are all the same while every day is different and maybe every hour as well.
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To say good-bye is to deny separation; it is to say Today we play at going our own ways, but we'll see each other tomorrow. Men invented farewells because they somehow knew themselves to be immortal, even while seeing themselves as contingent and ephemeral.
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The execution was set for the 29th of March, at nine in the morning. This delay was due to a desire on the part of the authorities to act slowly and impersonally, in the manner of planets or vegetables.
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This felicitous supposition declared that there is only one Individual, and that this indivisible Individual is every one of the separate beings in the universe, and that these beings are the instruments and masks of divinity itself.
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A man sets out to draw the world. As the years go by, he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and individuals. A short time before he dies, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the lineaments of his own face.
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Let neither tear nor reproach besmirch this declaration of the mastery of God who, with magnificent irony, granted me both the gift of books and the night.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead

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Quote by Jorge Luis Borges | QuoteProject