This beautiful line comes from Edith Wharton’s long poem “Vesalius in Zante (1564).” The speaker of the poem is Inquisition-era anatomist Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), who left Spain to travel to the East in his 50s, when he could no longer bear to live and work in a society that forbade his scientific research. On his way home from Jerusalem, Vesalius was shipwrecked on the Greek island of Zante, where he fell ill and died, never to return home. In the poet’s imagining, the censored scientist finds consolation at the end of his life in the faith that others will carry on the work he was prevented from: “What one man failed to speak, another finds / Another word for,” Wharton writes. In other words, carrying on the “light” of another — be it ideas, joy, love, or inspiration — can be just as valuable as creating it yourself.

As a leading figure in early 20th-century psychology, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung explored the relationship between self-awareness and our reaction to others. His insight here reflects a central principle of analytical psychology: The traits we find most troubling in others often mirror unresolved aspects of ourselves. In Jungian terms, those qualities are part of our “shadow self” — the unconscious traits we repress or deny. Rather than seeing irritation as purely negative, Jung viewed it as an opportunity to confront and integrate the hidden aspects of our own identity, transforming frustration into self-awareness and personal growth.