Six blind men touched an elephant and each described a completely different animal

In the ancient parable, blind men each touch a different part of an elephant — trunk, ear, leg, tail — and each insists the whole animal must resemble only what he felt. The story appears across Buddhist, Jain and Hindu texts and was popularised in English by John Godfrey Saxe's 1872 poem. It's still used to illustrate how partial perspectives distort a bigger truth.

— Traditional; popularised by John Godfrey Saxe, Blind men and an elephant — Ancient origin; Saxe's poem, 1872