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Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.

 
NUMBER: 879
AUTHOR: John Godfrey Saxe (1816–87)
QUOTATION: So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
ATTRIBUTION: JOHN GODFREY SAXE, “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” moral.—The Poetical Works of John Godfrey Saxe, p. 112 (1887).

While Saxe said this was a Hindu fable, the story may be found in The Udna, or The Solemn Utterances of the Buddha, chapter 6, section 4, trans. Dawsonne M. Strong, pp. 93–96 (1902).
SUBJECTS: Ignorance
 


Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -KEYWORD INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD