Quotes About Truth

Nature commits no errors; right and wrong are human categories.

In a society where hard data is uncertain at best, one must be careful to manipulate the truth. Appearance becomes reality. Perception becomes fact. Use this to your advantage. Empress Herade, A Primer on the Finer Points of Culture in the Imperium

Leto, I know you're only acting out of love, but sometimes love can guide a person in the wrong direction. Love can blind us to the truth. You're on the wrong path, my Duke, and you know it in your heart." Although he turned away from her, she did not relent. "You must never love the dead more than the living.

Assumptions are a transparent grid through which we view the universe, sometimes deluding ourselves that the grid is that universe. —COGITOR EKLO OF EARTH

Knowledge is pitiless.

Logic and reason are deceptive. They can lead a person to lose his soul. —MANFORD TORONDO, speech on Salusa Secundus

We avoid what we do not wish to see; we are deaf to what we do not wish to hear; we ignore what we do not wish to know. We are masters of self-deception, of manipulating our perceptions. —Bene Gesserit summation, Wallach IX archives

A man cannot drink from a mirage, but he can drown in it.

Beliefs are more powerful than facts." Leto stared through the thick sky at the magnificent, distant ship and frowned. It was often difficult to separate truth from fiction.…

Norma said with great portent, "Ignorance is a powerful armor against the truth.

Suspicions have a way of becoming "facts," even if they have no basis in truth. —PRINCESS IRULAN, The Book of Muad'Dib

History is a moving target that changes as fresh details are discovered, as errors are corrected, as popular attitudes shift. Historians carve the sculpture that is Truth not out of granite, but out of wet clay.

Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty. —LETO ATREIDES II, the God Emperor

Those who think they see most clearly are often more blind than the rest.

Some lies are easier to believe than the truth. —Orange Catholic Bible

Facts mean nothing when they are preempted by appearances. Do not underestimate the power of impression over reality. —CROWN PRINCE RAPHAEL CORRINO, The Rudiments of Power

Just repeating a statement often and with great vehemence does not make it a fact, and no amount of repetition can make a rational person believe it. —DRAIGO ROGET, report to Venport Holdings, "Analysis of Fanatical Patterns

Aye, you'll get t'the bottom of things, won't ye, sir!

Not strictly one of mine, but worth repeating! A very forceful old lady in these parts, when referring to the eight novels of the Angel Mountain Saga,was heard to say: You know them books by that fellow Brian John? If I was you I wouldn't believe a single word. Take it from me. It's lies -- all lies!

Regardless of sex, everyone loses something in a war... but the first casualty is always the truth.

You keep using that term, 'the enemy.' But you taught me that euphemisms are only for those who feel guilt about what they are describing.

Ray: What else did they get rid of, truth, justice and the American way? Leto jr.: Nah, truth ended when they shot M.L.K.. The American way died over in Vietnam. Mitch: And Justice? Leto jr.: Shit, man, there's no justice.... There's just us.

in the beginning, love is mostly about lying to each other.

we express a commitment to that which cannot be established by reason, or to that which can be established by reason but not for that reason.12