Quotes About Truth

in writing like this, he was letting truth from beyond time into history, and thus making history the handmaid of posterity and not its governor...

But we shouldn't believe things because it makes us happy to, she thought. We should believe things because they're true, and if that makes us unhappy, that's very unfortunate, but it's not the reason of fault.

Living was hateful, and death was no better, and from end to end of the universe this was the first and last and only truth.

How do you do that? By not being human, he said. That's why you could never trick a bear. We see tricks and deceit as plain as arms and legs. We can see in a way humans have forgotten. But you know about this; you can understand the symbol reader.

If Mrs. Coulter saw his reaction, she didn't show it. She went on: "Look, Will, I don't know how you came to meet my daughter, and I don't know what you know already, and I certainly don't know if I can trust you; but equally, I'm tired of having to lie. So here it is: the truth.

You know the theorem of Pythagoras?" "The square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides." "That's exactly it. And is that true for every example you've tried?" "Yes.

Instead, we should delicately and subtly undermine the idea that truth and facts are possible in the first place. Once the people have become doubtful about the truth of anything, all kinds of things will be open to us.

mr. makepeace, do you really turn lead into gold? no, of course not. no one can do that. but if people think you're foolish enough to try, they don't bother to look at what you're really doing. they leave you in peace.

But we shouldn't believe things because it makes us happy, she thought. We should believe things because they're true, and if that makes us unhappy that's very unfortunate, but it's not the fault of reason.

nor that she saw them as human-formed only because her eyes expected to. If she were to perceive their true form, they would seem more like architecture than organism, like huge structures composed of intelligence and feeling.

Which made her barefaced lies all the more effective, Lord Asriel thought with disgust; she lied in the very marrow of her bones.

And when Rusakov discovered Dust, at last there was physical proof that something happened when innocence changed into experience.

Oh! You're Lord Asriel!" "That's right. But how are you going to test the truth of that claim?" "What's the baby's name?" "Lyra." "And what's her dæmon called?" "Pantalaimon.

Or had she imagined it, and was her imagination just a spindrift of falsity?

And was it true before Pythagoras realized it?" Malcolm thought. "Yes," he said. "It must have been." "So he didn't invent it. He discovered it." "Yes." "Good. Now let's take one of the alethiometer symbols.

Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth. —William Blake

Will knew that the man was speaking the truth. But it wasn't a welcome truth. It was heavy and painful

Will said to his father's ghost, "You said I was a warrior. You told me that was my nature, and I shouldn't argue with it. Father, you were wrong. I fought because I had to. I can't choose my nature, but I can choose what I do. And I will choose, because now I'm free.

Tell them stories. That's what we didn't know. All this time, and we never knew! But they need the truth. That's what nourishes them. You must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, everything. Just tell them stories.

Being a practiced liar doesn't mean you have a powerful imagination. Many good liars have no imagination at all; it's that which gives their lies such wide-eyed conviction.

Una verdad referida con mala fe es peor que todas las mentiras.

Maybe it means nothing. It just is. Everything means something, Lyra said severely. We just have to find out how to read it.

truth that's told with bad intent Beats all the lies you can invent. • WILLIAM BLAKE •

Philip Pullman