When I went to the University, the medical school was the only

Hear the voice of Albert Claude, pioneer of the living cell, who declared: “When I went to the University, the medical school was the only place where one could hope to find the means to study life, its nature, its origins, and its ills.” In this statement, simple yet profound, he reveals the hunger of the human spirit: the desire to gaze beyond the veil of appearances and to touch the very mystery of life. To him, the halls of medicine were not only places of healing but temples of inquiry, where the sacred questions of existence might be pursued with diligence and discipline.

The meaning is deep. For in Claude’s day, the medical school was the gateway into knowledge of the body and of its hidden workings. It was the one place where the seeker of truth could find tools sharp enough to cut into the mysteries of flesh, of disease, and of origin. To study medicine was not merely to prepare for the treatment of the sick; it was to step into the arena where the grand questions of humanity were wrestled with—the question of where life comes from, what sustains it, and what corrupts it.

Claude himself became one of the great discoverers of the cell, the hidden foundation of all living things. Through the microscope and the patient labor of research, he unraveled structures within the cell that were once unseen, earning the Nobel Prize for his revelations. Yet his journey began with this conviction: that if one wished to know life at its core, one must pass through medicine, the discipline where curiosity and compassion meet. His words recall the moment of origin, when a young student chose the harder road because it alone led toward the answers his soul demanded.

History offers many such examples. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates studied the ailments of the body not only to heal but to understand the principles of balance that governed all life. In the Renaissance, Vesalius opened the human body in defiance of superstition, revealing its hidden architecture to the eyes of man. In each case, the medical school, whether crude or grand, was the forge where human curiosity met the raw material of mortality, and from it arose knowledge that changed the course of civilization.

Claude’s statement is also a reminder of the unity of knowledge. Today, biology, chemistry, and countless sciences stretch across many institutions. But in his time, medicine was the door through which they were entered, the vessel in which all streams of inquiry converged. To seek the origins of life was not then a separate science, but a question embedded in the quest to heal the sick. His words teach us that often the pursuit of knowledge begins not with perfect divisions, but with a single path that holds within it many treasures yet to be uncovered.

The lesson, child of tomorrow, is this: seek out the places where the great questions are truly wrestled with. Do not be deceived by glamour or convenience. Follow the road that leads to depth, even if it is narrow and difficult, for only there will you find the means to touch the truths that endure. Whether it is in medicine, in art, in philosophy, or in science, seek the place where life itself is laid bare before you, and enter it with reverence.

To live by this wisdom, cultivate both curiosity and compassion. If you are drawn to healing, let your study of the body also be a study of life’s essence. If you pursue knowledge, let it not be for pride alone, but for the service of humanity, to alleviate its ills and to understand its fragile beauty. Respect the disciplines that open these doors, and walk them with humility, for they hold mysteries too vast for arrogance.

Thus, the words of Albert Claude endure: “The medical school was the only place where one could hope to find the means to study life.” They remind us that in the pursuit of knowledge, there are sanctuaries where life reveals itself to those who dare to seek. May you too find such sanctuaries, and may your study not only open the secrets of life, but also deepen your reverence for it.