Quotes About Truth

Simone Weil was right. Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring.

Understood: language would end up falsifying everything, as language always does.

It was the existence of social inequity and the evils it gave rise to that in turn gave rise to the evil of secrecy.

Only those who are writers, it seems, get to say what happened

Between religion and knowledge, he said, a person must choose knowledge.

I never thought, she went on, that it would be so easy for me to lie. But what must be done can be done.

believe in God, but I don't believe in church.

it seems as though Descartes (once more influenced by ideas from previous philosophical traditions) may have slipped into thinking that an idea of X actually shares X. So an idea of infinity, for instance, would be an infinite idea.

belief is to knowledge as shadow is to original

An argument is valid when there is no way—meaning no possible way—that the premises, or starting points, could be true without the conclusion being true

Why was it, Mrs Pargeter mused, that the only people who said they were the last ones to spread gossip were always such arrant gossip-mongers?

Basil, The Holy Spirit sees how much difficulty mankind has in loving virtue, and how we prefer the lure of pleasure to the straight and narrow path. What does he do? He adds the grace of music to the truth of doctrine. Charmed by what we hear, we pluck the fruit of the words without realizing it.39

The denial of death is self-hatred.

Una notable ventaja que debemos a la filosofía consiste en el soberano antídoto que nos ofrece contra las supersticiones y la falsa religión. Todos los otros remedios contra esa pestilente enfermedad son en vano o, en cualquier caso, de dudosa utilidad.

To utter a word and meaning nothing by it is unworthy of a philosopher. Berkeley

Power and shekels are no guarantee of personal satisfaction. As you attempt to claw your way to the top, do not lose sight of your psychological needs. Make choices that bring you satisfaction and joy. (…) If being top dog makes you happy, then have at it. Live your truth. For everyone else I say this: be wary of jeopardizing your peace of mind in the pursuit of status, money, or power. Needlepoint that!

I don't believe you.' 'That doesn't make any difference. Whether you believe it or not doesn't change the facts. It doesn't depend on belief.

Many people are so comfortable and rooted in this way of knowing reality that they are unable to engage in any meaningful dialogue, being so sure of the 'facts', and that their version of 'reality' is the true one and nothing else possibly could be.

I am a liar!

The construction of mathematical logic had become the arbiter of truth. This was the Pythagoreans' greatest contribution to civilisation - a way of achieving truth which is beyond the fallibility of human judgement.

La reconciliación sólo es posible sobre la base del conocimiento de la realidad

but all day long I would be training myself to think, to understand, to criticize, to know myself; I was seeking for the absolute truth: this preoccupation did not exactly encourage polite conversation.

There is not a single line in this diary that does not call for a correction or a denial...Yes: throughout these pages I meant what I was writing and I meant the opposite; reading them again I feel completely lost...I was lying to myself. How I lied to myself!

Je sais qu'on ne peut jamais se connaître, mais seulement se raconter.