"In seeking absolute truth we aim at the unattainable and must be content with broken portions"
About this Quote
William Osler, the clinician-scholar who helped shape modern medical training, points to a paradox at the heart of inquiry: the highest ideal draws us forward, yet remains out of reach. Absolute truth is an asymptote, a horizon that organizes our journey but never becomes a destination. Human understanding arrives in fragments: provisional findings, partial explanations, models that work until they do not. The phrase broken portions does not belittle knowledge; it names the honest condition of learning in a world that is complex, changing, and resistant to finality.
For Osler, this stance was not abstract philosophy but the daily texture of medical life. Diagnosis and treatment rarely deliver certainties; they rely on probabilities, patterns, and revisions in the face of new evidence. He urged students to cultivate equanimity, a steady mind that accepts uncertainty without surrendering to it. Contentment here is not complacency. It is the disciplined calm that allows one to gather the fragments carefully, test them, and fit them into a better, though still incomplete, whole. The alternative is dogmatism, which confuses confidence with truth and turns temporary success into a creed.
The remark also defends aspiration. Aiming at the unattainable is not folly if the aim focuses effort, refines methods, and exposes error. Scientific progress often advances by successive approximations, each step a clearer shard that both illuminates and reveals what remains dark. In this light, humility and ambition are allies, not enemies: humility about the limits of current knowledge, ambition to extend those limits responsibly.
Applied beyond medicine, the counsel is practical wisdom for any field and for personal life. Decisions must be made with incomplete information; integrity lies in naming the uncertainty, choosing with care, and remaining ready to learn. Content with broken portions, yet never satisfied to stop gathering them: that is the mature posture of a seeker who honors truth without pretending to possess it whole.
For Osler, this stance was not abstract philosophy but the daily texture of medical life. Diagnosis and treatment rarely deliver certainties; they rely on probabilities, patterns, and revisions in the face of new evidence. He urged students to cultivate equanimity, a steady mind that accepts uncertainty without surrendering to it. Contentment here is not complacency. It is the disciplined calm that allows one to gather the fragments carefully, test them, and fit them into a better, though still incomplete, whole. The alternative is dogmatism, which confuses confidence with truth and turns temporary success into a creed.
The remark also defends aspiration. Aiming at the unattainable is not folly if the aim focuses effort, refines methods, and exposes error. Scientific progress often advances by successive approximations, each step a clearer shard that both illuminates and reveals what remains dark. In this light, humility and ambition are allies, not enemies: humility about the limits of current knowledge, ambition to extend those limits responsibly.
Applied beyond medicine, the counsel is practical wisdom for any field and for personal life. Decisions must be made with incomplete information; integrity lies in naming the uncertainty, choosing with care, and remaining ready to learn. Content with broken portions, yet never satisfied to stop gathering them: that is the mature posture of a seeker who honors truth without pretending to possess it whole.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
|---|---|
| Source | Aequanimitas (essay) in Aequanimitas and Other Addresses to Medical Students, Nurses and Practitioners of Medicine — William Osler (collected volume, 1904). |
More Quotes by William
Add to List
