Quotes About Truth

Truth is not … something to believe or disbelieve. The things we believe are always less than Truth[.]

We tend not to realise the extent to which we make up … the world, that is, the world of relative truths. We set boundaries, we make definitions. We determine what is good, what is bad, what ought to be, and what ought not to be – all out of inclinations of our mind.

We engage in conceptualising to clarify, to understand, to find certitude. (…) [W]e go nowhere with this process[.] … [W]e teach uncertainty, doubt, and meaninglessness to our children, all in the name of 'truth' … [I]t just goes on, generation after generation, the continuation of greed, anger, and ignorance.

Reality is not going to change with your perception of it.

We have all sorts of stories about heaven and hell, about oblivion and nothingness, about 'coming back,' and so on. But they are all stories.

There are two kinds of knowledge … One consists of beliefs, opinions, conjectures – having an idea of something. (…) But this is not the true knowing. (…) We think that our beliefs and ideas can be relied on to give us satisfaction. … In fact, they're … our primary source of anxiety and fear, because they're always subject to contradiction and doubt.

It's in our very trying to define and arrange things for ourselves – trying to identify and assign meaning to things – that we end up creating a world that is ultimately meaningless.

If it's Truth we're after, we'll find that we cannot start with any assumptions or concepts whatsoever. Instead, we must approach the world with bare, naked attention, seeing it without any mental bias—without concepts, beliefs, preconceptions, presumptions, or expectations

Pat tells you something about Jolene. What do you hear as a listener? What information have you actually received? You've received information about Pat – not Jolene. We may walk away believing we have solid information about Jolene. But we don't. All we have are Pat's words about her. Perhaps you haven't even met Jolene. If you're wise, you'll withhold judgements about her. Nothing put into speech is ever completely reliable.

comedy has to tell the truth.

Augie: Does everybody else know? T.C.: About my epitaph? Augie: About me being gay, you gink-head hoser-face! T.C. Not everybody. There's a night watchman at a Dunkin Donuts just outside of Detroit. He doesn't know yet.

Falling hard for somebody makes you do things you never thought you'd do before. Like pulling off an A in History or finally facing the truth about yourself

Sincerity: that's the hard part. If you can fake that, the rest is easy.

Carl Reiner. He had an entrenched sense of glee; he used humor as a gentle way of speaking difficult truths;

declarations and clearance documents

My partner has no use for what passes as journalism these days, particularly on the tube. According to Harry, they spend too much time in deep admiration for politicians who show particular skill in lying, so much so that they have now institutionalized the destruction of public ethics by elevating deceit to a statecraft called "spin." It is no longer the lie that matters but the qualitative fashion in which it is told. We

What they say about sunlight is true. It is often the best disinfectant.

Steve Martini

There's nothing wrong with stretching the truth. We stretch taffy, and that just makes it more delicious.

But being confident you are right is not the same as being right.

Information is a beacon, a cudgel, an olive branch, a deterrent—all depending on who wields it and how. Information is so powerful that the assumption of information, even if the information does not actually exist, can have a sobering effect.

Figure out what people really care about, not what they say they care about.

But in both instances, the dissemination of the information diluted its power. As Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis once wrote, Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.

The data don't lie: a Chicago street prostitute is more likely to have sex with a cop than to be arrested by one.