No human being is constituted to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth;
and even the best of men must be content with fragments, with partial glimpses, never the
full fruition.
—William Osler, 1905
There are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths
that plays the devil.
30
—Alfred North Whitehead, 1954
Chase after the truth like all hell and you’ll free yourself, even though you never touch its
coat-tails.
—Clarence Darrow, 1938
***
A problem well stated is a problem half solved.
—Charles F. Kettering
31
Well begun is half done.
—European proverb
***
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
—Anonymous
32
You’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem.
—Anonymous
33
If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate.
—Henry J. Tillman
34
30
This is apparently a play around a much older line by François Rabelais: “Speak the truth and
shame the devil”.
31
As quoted in several reliable sources, starting not later than 1954.
32
This popular slogan (with slight variations) has been attributed to perhaps the record number of
candidate authors, including Thomas Paine, Thomas Edison, George S. Patton, Ted Turner, Lee
Iacocca, Laurence J. Peter, and Arthur Uther Pendragon. I was unable to establish the original
author.
33
This line and its close siblings, quoted in several newspapers in the 1950s and the 1960s as
unauthored jokes, are actually succinct paraphrases of an earlier (circa 1937) maxim by John R.
Alltucker. The line became famous after it had been used by Eldridge Cleaver in his 1968 speech.
34
As quoted, without a date, by Robert A. Day and Nancy Sakaduski in 2011. Unfortunately I was
unable to identify this author.
On Discoveries, Problems, and Solutions
13