TRUTH QUOTES XXIV

quotations about truth

There are truths so prosaic, so dense, so dull, that one can hardly state them without suggesting the idea of something subtler or more interesting beyond.

LORD ACTON

letter to Mary Gladstone, June 9, 1880

Tags: Lord Acton


We're told that we're living in a post-truth (or post-factual) era, a political culture in which debate is framed largely by appeals to emotion disconnected from the details of policy, a culture that eschews a foundation of solid facts. Indeed, it is said that in this post-truth time, facts have become "secondary" if not entirely irrelevant. But who gets stuck with this "post-truth" label -- and it is typically used as an insult -- is not so simple.

GILBERT DOCTOROW

"Complexities of a 'Post-Truth' Era", Consortium News, May 11, 2017


The fact is, all people have a bias of some sort or another. It cannot be helped. All human beings are inculcated with it through their families, friends, culture, education, economic status, and a variety of factors in life. A search for truth is always done by a person, or persons, who are biased in some way. The difficulty for the seeker of authenticity is not to somehow overcome one's biases. The test is when the seeker finds a fact, or data set, that incline against their prejudice. The challenge is to realize that what is real, in any particular case, should prevail over the bias.

D.T. OSBORN

"Truth Is Always on Trial", Liberty Voice, April 14, 2017


When the love of truth rules in the heart, the light of truth will guide the practice.

BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE

Moral and Religious Aphorisms


Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

"A Liberal Decalogue", New York Times Magazine, December 16, 1951

Tags: Bertrand Russell


Truth is always opposed to the destructiveness of deception, duplicity, and hypocrisy. Although deviances may have their moment, truth must be forever upheld, for in due time, it will have its victory.

VINCENT J. BOVE

"Trojan Horse in the Heart of America", The Epoch Times, May 10, 2017


There is no higher religion than the truth.

HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY

The Essential Works of Helena Blavatsky


The truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is.

NADINE GORDIMER

"A Bolter and the Invincible Summer"

Tags: Nadine Gordimer


Our feelings often color the truth.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims


Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

attributed, Physics, God, and the End of the World

Tags: Winston Churchill


As ten millions of circles can never make a square, so the united voice of myriads cannot lend the smallest foundation to falsehood.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The Vicar of Wakefield

Tags: Oliver Goldsmith


Truth makes all things plain.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Tags: William Shakespeare


The ultimate arbiter of truth is experiment, not the comfort one derives from one's a priori beliefs, nor the beauty or elegance one ascribes to one's theoretical models.

LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS

A Universe from Nothing

Tags: Lawrence M. Krauss


Call it what you want: relativism, constructivism, deconstruction, postmodernism, critique. The idea is the same: Truth is not found, but made, and making truth means exercising power.

CASEY WILLIAMS

"Creating Truth is Assertion of Power", Asharq Al-Awsat, April 19, 2017


You don't always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it too.

ANNE LAMOTT

Bird by Bird

Tags: Anne Lamott


Your anger and damage and grief are the way to the truth. We don't have much truth to express unless we have gone into those rooms and closets and woods and abysses that we were told not go in to. When we have gone in and looked around for a long while, just breathing and finally taking it in -- then we will be able to speak in our own voice and to stay in the present moment. And that moment is home.

ANNE LAMOTT

Bird by Bird

Tags: Anne Lamott


All men need truth as they need water; if wise men are as high grounds where the springs rise, ordinary men are the lower grounds which their waters nourish.

ELIZA COOK

Diamond Dust


Truth rides a long road.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims


The investigation of the truth is in one way hard, in another easy. An indication of this is found in the fact that no one is able to attain the truth adequately, while, on the other hand, no one fails entirely, but everyone says something true about the nature of all things, and while individually they contribute little or nothing to the truth, by the union of all a considerable amount is amassed.

ARISTOTLE

Metaphysics

Tags: Aristotle


It is not always needful for truth to take a definite shape; it is enough if it hovers about us like a spirit and produces harmony; if it is wafted through the air like the sound of a bell, grave and kindly.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe