Quotes About Truth

That which we cannot speak of is the one thing about whom and to whom we must never stop speaking.

Orthodoxy as right belief will cost us little; indeed, it will allow us to sit back with our Pharisaic doctrines, guarding the 'truth' with the purity of our interpretations. But orthodoxy, as believing in the right way, as bringing love to the world around us and within us … that will cost us everything. For to live by that sword, as we all know, is to die by it.

The problem with so much religious communication is that it aims at changing our minds. The result is that we can hear the message of the preacher without necessarily heeding the message; we can listen to the "truth" and agree with it, yet not change in response to it.

Our real beliefs are generally not to be found at the level of ego.

In other words, the claim I believe in God is nothing but a lie if it is not manifest in our lives, because one only believes in God insofar as one loves.

Words do have consequences, and what one generation says but does not really believe, the next generation may believe, and even act upon.

the idea that there are objective ethical truths that are independent of what anyone desires.

The question cannot be dealt with by invoking the simplistic formula: 'The end never justifies the means.' For all but the strictest adherent of an ethic of rules, the end sometimes does justify the means. Most people think that lying is wrong, other things being equal, yet consider it right to lie in order to avoid causing unnecessary offence or embarrassment Ã¢â'¬â€œ

they took this as a law of nature, a self-evident necessary truth. On the contrary, says Marx, it bears the stamp of a society 'in which the process of production has the mastery over man, instead of being controlled by him'.

It's a good thing you write fiction. If you had to describe the real world, nobody would recognize it.

All of this could have happened, and some of it did, but not in that way.

She tasted what she had said and found it sour enough to be accurate.

The path to wisdom leads downward, and anyone who decides to take it had better buckle on armor, remember to bring a sword, and get used to the idea that when and if he gets back everyone he talks to is going to think he's a phony.

Everything here is a lie, Rose said. Just because you saw it doesn't mean it really happened. Tom nodded. He was curiously reluctant to take up this hope she offered. If he reached out, it might bite his hand.

Evil is a convenient fiction.

Despite all this talk about imagination, we are implacably real.

children]can thus learn the art of loving and know truly that when they think a thought they release a tremendous power or force in space.

The first lie of a map—also the first lie of fiction—is that it is the truth.

We compile mental maps that are wildly skewed, a mental atlas so large and complex that we can never fully convey it to anyone else. Then we live in the world those maps create.

We need to keep in mind the distinction between realism and reality. To confuse the two is to lose sight of the difference between art and life.

Pietro Pompanazzi (1462–c. 1525)

OS QUATRO CANTORES Pobre Marat em tua casa cercada estás adiantado um século de nós Enquanto tine a lâmpada lá fora e tuas palavras se decompõe escorre-se em sangue toda a verdade que aprendeste

Those words, Suzuki said, contain the basic truth of existence: Everything is always in flux. Until you accept this, you won't be able to find true equanimity. But to do that means accepting life as it is, not just what you consider the "good parts.

Books are like truth serum. If you don't read, you can't figure out what's real.