Quotes About Truth

Vina e un vis, mila e singura realitate.

Later in the journey, Olek turned his head in against Henry's arm and began to weep. He would not at first tell Rosner what was wrong. When he did speak at last, it was to say that he was sorry to drag Henry off to Auschwitz. "To die just because of me," he said. Henry could have tried to soothe him by telling lies, but it wouldn't have worked. All the children knew about the gas. They grew petulant when you tried to deceive them.

historians are not often appreciated because their research tends to destroy myths. I

historians are not often appreciated because their research tends to destroy myths.

Once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world.

In our cynical world, where suspicion is a necessity, insisting that something is true is not nearly as powerful as suggesting that something might be true.

Most of us think that history is the past. It's not. History is the stories we tell about the past. That's all it is. Stories. Such a definition might make the enterprise of history seem neutral. Benign.

Most of us think that history is the past. It's not. History is the stories we tell about the past. That's all it is.

The truth about stories is, that's all we are.

you have to be careful with the stories you tell. And you have to watch out for the stories that you are told.

There are no truths. Only stories.

The truth about stories is that that's all we are.

Stories are wondrous things. And they are dangerous."

History is the stories we tell about the past.

Under feigned jest Are things conceal'd that else would breed unrest.

The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense.

Science is unique among human ways of knowing because it is self-correcting. Every

One cringes to hear scientists cooing over the universe or any part thereof like schoolgirls over-heated by their first crush. From the studies of Krafft-Ebbing onward, we know that it is possible to become excited about anything—from shins to shoehorns. But it would be nice if just one of these gushing eggheads would step back and, as a concession to objectivity, speak the truth: THERE IS NOTHING INNATELY IMPRESSIVE ABOUT THE UNIVERSE OR ANYTHING IN IT.

I think the worst way a writer can self-betray is by not being true to his or her experience of being alive. It's my belief, for what it's worth, that a lot of writers consign to the page what they think will meet with the approval, especially in the moral realm, of what their society has preached to them since they were children, almost all of which is utter bull####.

As we should know by now, it is as easy to make fun of religious or scientific visionaries as it is to idolize them. Which attitude is adopted depends on whether or not they tell you what you want to hear.

the knowledge that life is worthless is the flower of all human wisdom.

In plain language, we cannot live except as self-deceivers who must lie to ourselves about ourselves, as well as about our unwinnable situation in this world.

There is no nature to things,' you wrote in the book. 'There are no faces except masks held tight against the pitching chaos behind them.

If things are not what they seem—and we are forever reminded that this is the case—then it must also be observed that enough of us ignore this truth to keep the world from collapsing.