» On truth

…sixteen true quotations

Personally, I am not sure there is anything called “truth”. There are true statements but, just as there is not a concrete thing called “greenness” even though there are green objects, like grass, truth is an abstract concept.

The principles of logic and mathematics are true simply because we never allow them to be anything else.

AJ Ayer . 1910-1989 . English humanist philosopher . Language, truth and logic

The subconscious is ceaselessly murmuring, and it is by listening to these murmurs that one hears the truth.

Gaston Bachelard . 1884-1962 . French philosopher of science and literary critic . The poetics of the reverie

The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it, seems to me the deepest root of all that is evil in the world.

Max Born . 1882-1970 . German-born British physicist and mathematician . Natural philosophy of cause and chance

There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art… The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.

Raymond Chandler . 1888-1959 . American author . The notebooks of Raymond Chandler

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

Albert Einstein . 1879-1955 . German theoretical physicist and humanist . letter to Jost Winteler

A very great deal more truth can become known than can be proven.

Richard Feynman . 1918-1988 . American theoretical physicist . Nobel lecture, 1965

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self sustained.

Mahatma Gandhi . 1869-1948 . Indian politician and spiritual leader . Young India

Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.

André Gide . 1869-1951 . French author . So be it: or the chips are down

The truth is not simply what you think it is; it is also the circumstances in which it is said, and to whom, why, and how it is said.

Václav Havel . 1936-2011 . Czech writer and dramatist, and politician . Disturbing the peace

Truth is the torch that gleams through the fog without dispelling it.

attributed to Claude Adrien Helvétius . 1715-1771 . French philosopher

Beauty is truth, truth beauty.

John Keats . 1795-1821 . English poet . Ode on a Grecian urn

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

Marcus Aurelius . 121-180 . Roman Stoic philosopher and emperor

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer . 1788-1860 . German philosopher . similar statements attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, JBS Haldane, Arthur C Clarke and, no doubt, others

The truth is always something that is told, not something that is known. If there were no speaking or writing, there would be no truth about anything. There would only be what is.

Susan Sontag . 1933-2004 . American cultural theorist and literary critic . The benefactor

If you’re going to tell people the truth, be funny or they’ll kill you.

unknown author . attributed to Charlie Chaplin, WC Fields, Oscar Wilde, Billy Wilder and, no doubt, others

Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions.

Zen saying

On truth