October 05, 2026

Add Another Side

The intellect is to truth as an inscribed polygon is to the circle; the more angles the polygon has, the more it resembles the circle, yet it never becomes the circle, however many angles are added, unless it is resolved into oneness with the circle.

Nicholas of Cusa was a German cardinal, mathematician, and philosopher who wrote On Learned Ignorance in 1440, reportedly after a flash of insight on a ship returning from Constantinople. In it he uses geometry to explain why the finite mind can never fully grasp infinite truth, comparing our understanding to a polygon drawn inside a circle. Add as many sides as you like, he says, and the shape still falls short of the circle it is reaching for. The same is true of character: virtue is not a finished state we arrive at but a shape we keep refining, one honest side at a time.