Man can embody truth but he cannot know it.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- People can show truth through actions but cannot fully understand or define it intellectually.
- In plain terms
- You can act truthfully but you cannot fully understand the truth.
- What can you take from it?
- Live truthfully rather than trying to fully define it.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Can you know truth?
- Is acting better than knowing?
Another view
It denies the possibility of intellectual understanding of truth.
More from William Butler Yeats
Englishmen are babes in philosophy and so prefer faction-fighting to the labour of its unfamiliar thought.
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