Truth is that which is in accord with reality, fact, and experience, that which is authentic. Truth can include facts, and truth can include a coherence with experience. The word in English derives from an older word similar to that meaning faithful (truth is that which is faithful to reality or experience), and ultimately is derived from a root meaning tree. To be truthful is to be as straight and strong as a tree. Other languages have words for truth (veritas, pravda, etc.) that have different derivations.
These quotations explore aspects of truth and truth-telling.
When we allow emotions to trump the intellect, we swallow “facts” that are demonstrably untrue, letting them fly around unchallenged in a mockery of civic discourse, supporting public figures who promote fictions to further their own cause.
A universal skepticism is limited by its own criteria. If we assume it to be true, then it is false.
You never find yourself until you face the truth.
Every reporter inhales skepticism. You interview people, and they lie. You face public figures, diligently making notes or taping what is said, and they perform their interviews to fit a calculated script. The truth, alas, is always elusive.
A child of today can detect a lie quicker than the wisest adult of two decades ago. When I want to know what is true, I ask my children.
The key to wisdom is this constant and frequent questioning for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.
The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth.
Love is the only reality and it is not a mere sentiment. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation.
Beauty is truth’s smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror.
Truth is our element.
Is not prayer a study of truth? No one ever prayed heartily without learning something.
The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.
The highest compact we can make with our fellow is, — ‘Let there be truth between us two forever more.’
Truth, and goodness, and beauty are but different faces of the same all.
Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning, and under every deep a lower deep opens.
Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth, that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning; that there is always another dawn risen on mid-noon, and under every deep a lower deep opens.
This fact, as far as it symbolizes the moral fact of the Unattainable, the flying Perfect, around which the hands of man can never meet, at once the inspirer and the condemner of every success, may conveniently serve us to connect many illustrations of human power in every department.
Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.
Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.
Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.
Reform is affirmative, conservatism negative; conservatism goes for comfort, reform for truth.
In order to seek truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life to doubt, as far as possible, of all things.
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always uncertain…. In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.
Most of the change we think we see in life Is due to truths being in and out of favor.
Here I am showing you the ferocity of my hunger. Here I am, finally freeing myself to be vulnerable and terribly human. Here I am, reveling in that freedom. Here. See what I hunger for and what my truth has allowed me to create.
The course of true anything never does run smooth.
Defending the truth is not something one does out of a sense of duty or to allay guilt complexes, but is a reward in itself.
I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for the truth; and truth rewarded me.
I do not understand those who take little or no interest in the subject of religion. If religion embodies a truth, it is certainly the most important truth of human experience. If it is largely error, then it is one of monumentally tragic proportions – and should be vigorously opposed.
In the most general terms, the Enlightenment goes back to Plato’s belief that truth and beauty and goodness are connected; that truth and beauty, disseminated widely, will sooner or later lead to goodness. (While we’re making an effort at truth and goodness, beauty reminds us what we’re holding out for.)
