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Link Quote Stars Tags Author
6b6ae5b Men don't need linguistic talent; they just need courage and words. truth Helen Fisher
1130fbf I wish i could tell you that through the tragedy i mined some undiscovered, life-altering absolute that i could pass on to you.I didn't.The cliches apply-people are what count,life is precious,materialism is over rated, and the little things matter,live in the moment-and i can repeat them to you ad nauseam.you might listen, but you won't internalize.Tragedy hammers it hm.Tragedy etches into your soul.You might not be happier.But you will be better. tragedy life truth Harlan Coben
45846ba Despite how entertaining certain stories were, at the bottom of every item of gossip there was someone getting hurt. truth society Sherwood Smith
a9a0858 "I'm only telling you on the truth," he said. "If you can't stand the truth, don't ask for it." truth Colum McCann
4a3f558 She took refuge on the firm ground of fiction, through which indeed there curled the blue river of truth. fiction truth knowledge Henry James
3276314 If you want truth, you should begin by giving it. trust truth sharing Lloyd Alexander
e76f9d7 But suppose it was truth double strong, it were no truth to me if I couldna take it in. I daresay there's truth in yon Latin book on your shelves; but it's gibberish and no truth to me, unless I know the meaning o' the words. words meaning truth Elizabeth Gaskell
b6b6ce4 I was starting to see that what looks like garbage from one angle might be art from another. Maybe it did take a crisis to get to know yourself; maybe you needed to get whacked hard by life before you understood what you wanted out of it. understanding life truth garbage crisis yourself Jodi Picoult
ecd168b George, she says it's the truth that matters. We live and die for the chance to maybe tell a little bit of the truth, maybe shame the Devil just a little bit before we go. truth truth-inspirational Mira Grant
9878ddf "Nobody looks like what they really are on the inside. You don't. I don't. People are much more complicated than that. It's true of everybody.' I said, 'Are you a monster? Like Ursula Monkton?' Lettie threw a pebble into the pond. 'I don't think so,' she said. 'Monsters come in all shapes and sizes, Some of them are things people are scared of. Some of them are things that look like things people used to be scared of a long time ago. Sometimes monsters are things people should be scared of, but they aren't.' I said, 'People should be scared of Ursula Monkton.' 'P'raps. What do you think Ursula Monkton is scared of?' 'Dunno. Why do you think she's scared of anything? She's a grown-up, isn't she? Grown-ups and monsters aren't scared of things.' Oh, monsters are scared," said Lettie. "That's why they're monsters. And as for grown-ups...' She stopped talking, rubbed her freckled nose with a finger. Then, 'I'm going to tell you something important. Grown-ups don't look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they're big and thoughtless and they always know what they're doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. Truth is, there aren't any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world." fear fantasy truth adults age inside outside children childhood monsters scared Neil Gaiman
1daf02b "You may plainly perceive the traitor through his mask; he is well known every-where in his true colors; his rolling eyes and his honeyed tones impose only on those who do not know him. People are aware that this low-bred fellow, who deserves to be pilloried, has, by the dirtiest jobs, made his way in the world; and that the splendid position he has acquired makes merit repine and virtue blush. Yet whatever dishonourable epithets may be launched against him everywhere, nobody defends his wretched honour. Call him a rogue, an infamous wretch, a confounded scoundrel if you like, all the world will say "yea, " and no one contradicts you. But for all that, his bowing and scraping are welcome everywhere; he is received, smiled upon, and wriggles himself into all kinds of society; and, if any appointment is to be secured by intriguing, he will carry the day over a man of the greatest worth. Zounds! these are mortal stabs to me, to see vice parleyed with; and sometimes times I feel suddenly inclined to fly into a wilderness far from the approach of men." people morality life truth life-lesson deception endearments masks misanthropy roguery society hypocrisy traitor deceit vices Molière
821182a "Who can tell truth from falsehood any more? I say it, and you feel it in your hearts: no man or woman on this big small earth. How should our sages miss the mark of life, and our most skillful players lose the game? truth wisdom six-nonlectures E.E. Cummings
4ae2523 Deception is mostly a game we play with ourselves. lies life truth Terry Brooks
6cb37e8 If human nature were not base, but thoroughly honourable, we should in every debate have no other aim than the discovery of truth; we should not in the least care whether the truth proved to be in favour of the opinion which we had begun by expressing, or of the opinion of our adversary. That we should regard as a matter of no moment, or, at any rate, of very secondary consequence; but, as things are, it is the main concern. Our innate vanity, which is particularly sensitive in reference to our intellectual powers, will not suffer us to allow that our first position was wrong and our adversary's right. The way out of this difficulty would be simply to take the trouble always to form a correct judgment. For this a man would have to think before he spoke. But, with most men, innate vanity is accompanied by loquacity and innate dishonesty. They speak before they think; and even though they may afterwards perceive that they are wrong, and that what they assert is false, they want it to seem thecontrary. The interest in truth, which may be presumed to have been their only motive when they stated the proposition alleged to be true, now gives way to the interests of vanity: and so, for the sake of vanity, what is true must seem false, and what is false must seem true. truth falsehood vanity Arthur Schopenhauer
f3ae853 "She shook her head and whispered, "No. No! That can't be true. Impossible!" "You think things have to be possible? Things have to be true!" true truth possible Philip Pullman
befcf8a The things that make you a functional citizen in society - manners, discretion, cordiality - don't necessarily make you a good writer. Writing needs raw truth, wants your suffering and darkness on the table, revels in a cutting mind that takes no prisoners... honesty truth raw memoir Natalie Goldberg
9987ca5 A lie, as you probably know, has a taste all its own. Blocky and bitter and never quite right, like when you pop a piece of fancy chocolate into your mouth expecting toffee filling and you get lemon zest instead. life truth taste lie Jodi Picoult
aad09d3 A story can always break into pieces while it sits inside a book on a shelf; and, decades after we have read it even twenty times, it can open us up, by cut or caress, to a new truth. reading truth Andre Dubus
f8a5db4 It's not enough to be able to lie with a straight face; anybody with enough gall to raise on a busted flush can do that. The first way to lie artistically is to tell the truth -- but not all of it. The second way involves telling the truth, too, but is harder: Tell the exact truth and maybe all of it...but tell it so unconvincingly that your listener is sure you are lying. lying lies truth omissions half-truths Robert A. Heinlein
b3fa5b6 "Thus we use our supposed "knowledge" of others to speak on their behalf, and condemn them for their words we ourselves put in their silent mouths." truth dissapointment Margaret George
0a21afb "A DEAD STATESMAN I could not dig: I dared not rob: Therefore I lied to please the mob. Now all my lies are proved untrue And I must face the men I slew. What tale shall serve me here among irony lies war youth politics truth dishonesty deceit Rudyard Kipling
629ba37 Here's the truth: Who is spared love is spared grief. love truth spared David Mitchell
d617314 "People enjoy inventing slogans which violate basic arithmetic but which illustrate "deeper" truths, such as "1 and 1 make 1" (for lovers), or "1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 1" (the Trinity). You can easily pick holes in those slogans, showing why, for instance, using the plus-sign is inappropriate in both cases. But such cases proliferate. Two raindrops running down a window-pane merge; does one plus one make one? A cloud breaks up into two clouds -more evidence of the same? It is not at all easy to draw a sharp line between cases where what is happening could be called "addition", and where some other word is wanted. If you think about the question, you will probably come up with some criterion involving separation of the objects in space, and making sure each one is clearly distinguishable from all the others. But then how could one count ideas? Or the number of gases comprising the atmosphere? Somewhere, if you try to look it up, you can probably fin a statement such as, "There are 17 languages in India, and 462 dialects." There is something strange about the precise statements like that, when the concepts "language" and "dialect" are themselves fuzzy." truth mathematics Douglas R. Hofstadter
3eab5c1 The best way to waste your life is by taking notes. The easiest way to avoid living is to just watch. Look for the details. Report. Don't participate. Let Big Brother do the singing and dancing for you. Be a reporter. Be a good witness. A grateful member of the audience. living life truth participate Chuck Palahniuk
67a1447 Maybe the truth is I really want to like you instead. truth Chuck Palahniuk
0fd81c2 So do flux and reflux--the rhythm of change--alternate and persist in everything under the sky. truth wisdom reflux flux Thomas Hardy
d3e58f2 Great men don't nessarily make good husbands. truth husbands Lisa Kleypas
e635e94 It was amazing how it worked: the tiniest bit of truth made credible the greatest lies. truth Jeffrey Eugenides
8a54c31 Why, he wondered, did so many people spend their lives not trying to find answers to questions--not even thinking of questions to begin with? Was there anything more exciting in life than seeking answers? truth Isaac Asimov
a044d9a Children inherit their parents' madness. humor truth Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
5c6597b All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry, shriveled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut. writing truth thought Anne Brontë
ada1ab8 It's never too late with truth. It stands outside time. truth Karen Kingsbury
c129527 A regime that wraps itself in the flag of truth fears truth most of all, for if its story is falsified to the slightest degree, its authority is gone. truth Orson Scott Card
b06ae2c And even beyond the flaws, there are just some simple differences between Felipe and me that we will both have to accept. He will never--I promise you--attend a yoga class with me, no matter how many times I may try to convince him that he would absolutely love it. (He would absolutely not love it.) We will never meditate together on a weekend spiritual retreat. I will never get him to cut back on all the red meat, or to do some sort of faddish fasting cleanse with me, just for the fun of it. I will never get him to smooth out his temperament, which burns at sometimes exhausting extremes. He will never take up hobbies with me, I am certain of this. We will not stroll through the farmer's market hand in hand or go on a hike together specifically to identify wildflowers. And although he is happy to sit and listen to me talk all day long about why I love Henry James, he will never read the collected works of Henry James by my side--so this most exquisite pleasure of mine must remain a private one. marriage romance truth Elizabeth Gilbert
6dd1ed4 Truth is most beautiful undraped. truth schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer
829246d I didn't know if his art was helping. But Moses's pictures were like that, glorious and terrible. Glorious because they brought memory to life, terrible for the same reason. Time softens memories, sanding down the rough edges of death. But Moses's pictures dripped with life and reminded us of our loss. death truth raw ironic talent Amy Harmon
897be27 I can't explain that, except to say there's release in knowing the truth no matter how anguishing it is. You come finally to the irreducible thing, and there's nothing left to do but pick it up and hold it. Then, at least, you can enter the severe mercy of acceptance. truth Sue Monk Kidd
0d4c56d And the more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of of that order was to give room for good things to run wild. good philosophy truth theology G.K. Chesterton
ce0d791 The heresy of an age of reason,' or some such slovos [words]. 'I see what is right and approve, but I do what is wrong. reason reality truth reliance society Anthony Burgess
6c91874 m`Zm lbshr '`ynhm mGlq@ bGbr lkhyb@ l~ HdW ymn`hm mn rw'y@ lHqyq@ people truth Elizabeth Gilbert
0c23343 When you hear a true story, there is a part of you that responds to it regardless of art, regardless of evidence. Let it be the most obvious fabrication and you will still believe whatever truth is in it, because you can not deny truth no matter how shabbily it is dressed. truth stories Orson Scott Card
3641c1b He says every story has at least some truth in it, even if most are made up. truth Darren Shan
59443c4 We can't believe what we believe to be untrue, and we can't love what we believe to be unreal. faith love truth Peter Kreeft
89c86f3 We must set aside our wishes and give heed to reality. Nobody can accept the truth while hiding from it. When a decision matters, we have to stare at the truth unflinchingly. Only then can we find peace in our choices. reality truth Brandon Mull
049a7b7 "All these angels start coming out of the boxes and everywhere, guys carrying crucifixes and stuff all over the place, and the whole bunch of them - thousands of them - singing "Come All Ye Faithful" like mad. Big deal. It's supposed to be religious as hell, I know, and very pretty and all, but I can't see anything religious or pretty, for God's sake, about a bunch of actors carrying crucifixes all over the stage. When they all finished and started going out the boxes again, you could tell they could hardly wait to get a cigarette of something. I saw it with old Sally Hayes the year before, and she kept saying how beautiful it was, the costumes and all. I said old jesus probably would've puked if he could see it." people humanity truth human-nature J.D. Salinger
2bb7d18 Within every elaborate lie, a kernel of truth. lying lies honesty truth lie stories Marisha Pessl
53ca32e the difference between poets and mystics . . . The mystic nails a symbol to one meaning that was true for a moment but soon becomes false. The poet, on the other hand, sees that truth but understands that symbols are always in flux and that their meanings are fleeting. truth symbol Neal Stephenson
197cfc6 [...] provability is a weaker notion than truth truth gödel-s-incompleteness-theorem mat proof mathematics Douglas R. Hofstadter
70eade6 Until you guys own your own souls you don't own mine. Until you guys can be trusted every time and always, in all times and conditions, to seek the truth out and find it and let the chips fall where they may--until that time comes, I have the right to listen to my conscience, and protect my client the best way I can. Until I'm sure you won't do him more harm than you'll do the truth good. Or until I'm hauled before somebody that can make me talk. trust truth interrogation police Raymond Chandler
1e73292 For to speak the truth, there are but few that care thus to spend their time, but choose rather to be speaking of things to no profit. jesus truth scripture John Bunyan
c86d402 We read the pagan sacred books with profit and delight. With myth and fable we are ever charmed, and find a pleasure in the endless repetition of the beautiful, poetic, and absurd. We find, in all these records of the past, philosophies and dreams, and efforts stained with tears, of great and tender souls who tried to pierce the mystery of life and death, to answer the eternal questions of the Whence and Whither, and vainly sought to make, with bits of shattered glass, a mirror that would, in very truth, reflect the face and form of Nature's perfect self. These myths were born of hopes, and fears, and tears, and smiles, and they were touched and colored by all there is of joy and grief between the rosy dawn of birth, and death's sad night. They clothed even the stars with passion, and gave to gods the faults and frailties of the sons of men. In them, the winds and waves were music, and all the lakes, and streams, and springs,--the mountains, woods and perfumed dells were haunted by a thousand fairy forms. They thrilled the veins of Spring with tremulous desire; made tawny Summer's billowed breast the throne and home of love; filled Autumns arms with sun-kissed grapes, and gathered sheaves; and pictured Winter as a weak old king who felt, like Lear upon his withered face, Cordelia's tears. These myths, though false, are beautiful, and have for many ages and in countless ways, enriched the heart and kindled thought. But if the world were taught that all these things are true and all inspired of God, and that eternal punishment will be the lot of him who dares deny or doubt, the sweetest myth of all the Fable World would lose its beauty, and become a scorned and hateful thing to every brave and thoughtful man. winter perfection shakespeare true grief doubt passion nature joy fear past death dreams music hope life love truth hateful philosophies religion-myths scorn sacred-books brave tender fairy haunted pagan king-lear spring woods fable poetic mountains lake birth smiles deny eternity autumn punishment gods effort tears questions mystery beautiful throne summer thought delight william-shakespeare pleasure Robert G. Ingersoll
5ac59df Tiffany was on the whole quite a truthful person, but it seemed to her that there were times when things didn't divide easily into 'true' and 'false', but instead could be 'things that people needed to know at the moment' and 'things that they didn't need to know at the moment'. truth pratchett tiffany-aching Terry Pratchett
275d2a9 Well, the way of paradoxes is the way of truth. To test reality we must see it on the tight rope. When the verities become acrobats, we can judge them. reality truth Oscar Wilde
fe40d05 This is part of what a family is about, not just love, but letting others know there's someone who is watching out for them. It's what I missed so much when my mother died--what I call your 'spiritual security'--knowing that your family will be there watching out for you. Nothing else will give you that. Not money. Not fame. life love truth security Mitch Albom
65f9c18 It was the truth, and like any truth, it was powerful. truth Melissa de la Cruz
21a9ddc America's intellectual community has never been very bright. Or honest. They're all sheep, following whatever the intellectual fashion of the decade happens to be. Demanding that everyone follow their dicta in lockstep. Everyone has to be open-minded and tolerant of the things they believe, but God forbid they should ever concede, even for a moment, that someone who disagrees with them might have some fingerhold of truth. lies lockstep truth patterns Orson Scott Card
61c6f83 A man who serves language, however imperfectly, should always serve truth. truth Anthony Burgess
55bf816 They have money and position and Ann has none.It's amazing how often you can be right as long as you have those two things working in your favor. money world truth position Libba Bray
6d760bd Who are we without our memories? memories life truth la-vie Marta Acosta
05969a6 When love dies and marriage lies in ruins, the first casualty is honest memory, decent, impartial recall of the past. Too inconvenient, too damning of the present. It's the spectre of old happiness at the feast of failure and desolation. So, against that headwind of forgetfulness I want to place my little candle of truth and see how far it throws its light. marriage love truth memory Ian McEwan
e2eb424 The world would hate His followers, not because of evil in their lives, but precisely because of the absence of evil or rather their goodness. Goodness does not cause hatred, but it gives occasion for hatred to manifest itself. The holier and purer a life, the more it would attract malignity and hate. Mediocrity alone survives. faith life truth wisdom p315 mediocrity Fulton J. Sheen
fcd262e I'll quote the truth wherever I find it, thank you. truth Richard Bach
db6832d Telling Sam and Daneca feels like peeling off my own skin to expose everything underneath. It hurts. lies truth conspiracies hidden secrets sharing-secrets Holly Black
31fac1e Stories are not like the real world; they aren't held back by what we know is false or true. What's important is how a story makes you feel inside. truth storytelling Tahir Shah
c20412f There was a distinction between lying and telling half-truths, but it was a very narrow one. truth Alexander McCall Smith
adcbe3c While Owen and Miles talk sports, I people watch. And this is what I see: teenagers trying to act like adults. Or how they think adults act. But mostly they look ridiculous, and I wonder what they don't want to do something that's more fun than drinking, smoking, flirting, and making out. Why are those activities considered to be fun? truth teenage Melody Carlson
7eaebcd I thought if I told no one it might not be true. true secret truth tell wide-sargasso-sea Jean Rhys
a7a4fd3 What would you do if you only had one day left in this world? Spend it with the people you love? Travel to the far corners of the earth to see as many wonders as possible? Eat nothing but chocolate? Would you apologize for all your mistakes? Would you stand up to those you'd never had the courage to face? Would you tell your secret crush that you loved him or her? Why is it that we wait till the last minute to do the things we should be doing all along? truth last-day-on-earth relatable Jodi Picoult
92d0684 Knowing belongs to man's intellect or reason; loving belongs to his will. The object of the intellect is truth; the object of the will is goodness or love. love truth will Fulton J. Sheen
5b3a8c1 I'm sure all that you've heard is just the usual gossip, invented to injure feelings rather than illuminate truth. truth Joyce Carol Oates
bb74500 The worst thing about talk ... is that there's no way to lay it to rest. Every fresh breeze brings a new speculation. truth Susan Wittig Albert
1c6345d I preferred a hard truth to a well-meant lie. truth Jacqueline Carey
76061b2 There are two more turds, smaller ones, and when he has eaten these, residual shit to lick out of her anus. He prays that she'll let him drop the cape over himself, to be allowed, in the silk-lined darkness, to stay a while longer with his submissive tongue straining upward into her asshole. But she moves away. The fur evaporates from his hands. She orders him to masturbate for her. She has watched Captain Blicero with Gottfried, and has learned the proper style. sex truth sex-advice reality-check Thomas Pynchon
a42076a The feeling is that we have everything to say. And where do you begin with everything? relationships love truth stephanie-perkins Stephanie Perkins
f8c0b1e Who can ever know what path to walk on when all of them are either crooked or broken? One just has to walk. free-will life truth Ishmael Beah
de70251 And having once chosen, never to seek to return to the crossroads of that decision-for even if one chooses wrongly, the choice cannot be unmade. death life-lessons truth inspirational crossroads Jacqueline Carey
95d1ab5 Stories are masks of God. That's a story, too, of course. I made it up, in collaborations with Joseph Campbell and Scheherazade, Jesus and the Buddha and the Brother's Grimm. Stories show us how to bear the unbearable, approach the unapproachable, conceive the inconceiveable. Stories provide meaning, texture, layers and layers of truth. Stories can also trivialize. Offered indelicately, taken too literally, stories become reductionist tools, rendering things neat and therefore false. Even as we must revere and cherish the masks we variously create, Campbell reminds us, we must not mistake the masks of God for God. So it seemes to me that one of the most vital things we can teach our children is how to be storytellers. How to tell stories that are rigorously, insistently, beautifully true. And how to believe them. jesus god truth buddha joseph-campbell masks-of-god scheherazade storytellers the-brothers-grimm children stories Melanie Tem
bc69f91 God Is, Lucifer is a devil, and there is a Hell. god truth hard-truths christopher-marlowe marlowe lucifer demons christian eternity creator devil faust hell E.A. Bucchianeri
873c0b7 Thus we have on stage two men, each of whom knows nothing of what he believes the other knows, and to deceive each other reciprocally both speak in allusions, each of the two hoping (in vain) that the other holds the key to his puzzle. truth games knowledge Umberto Eco
2494a82 History has the relation to truth that theology has to religion -- ie., none to speak of religion truth theology Robert A. Heinlein
30ac17a Perhaps conscience did not always produce cowards. Sometimes it made a man feel better about himself. truth inspirational Robert Ludlum
6e3d889 "Pilate's skeptical sneer "What is truth?" was addressed to Truth Himself, standing there right in front of his face. The world's stupidest question was three words; God's profoundest answer was one Word." christianity jesus god philosophy truth pontius-pilate jesus-shock jesus-christ theology christ Peter Kreeft
731ce45 Dementia was like a truth serum. truth Amy Tan
6ddc551 (Ivan) Hold your tongue, or I'll kill you! (The devil) You'll kill me? No, excuse me, I will speak. I came to treat myself to that pleasure. Oh, I love the dreams of my ardent young friends, quivering with eagerness for life! 'There are new men,' you decided last spring, when you were meaning to come here, 'they propose to destroy everything and begin with cannibalism. Stupid fellows! they didn't ask my advice! I maintain that nothing need be destroyed, that we only need to destroy the idea of God in man, that's how we have to set to work. It's that, that we must begin with. Oh, blind race of men who have no understanding! As soon as men have all of them denied God -- and I believe that period, analogous with geological periods, will come to pass -- the old conception of the universe will fall of itself without cannibalism, and, what's more, the old morality, and everything will begin anew. Men will unite to take from life all it can give, but only for joy and happiness in the present world. Man will be lifted up with a spirit of divine Titanic pride and the man-god will appear. From hour to hour extending his conquest of nature infinitely by his will and his science, man will feel such lofty joy from hour to hour in doing it that it will make up for all his old dreams of the joys of heaven. Everyone will know that he is mortal and will accept death proudly and serenely like a god. His pride will teach him that it's useless for him to repine at life's being a moment, and he will love his brother without need of reward. Love will be sufficient only for a moment of life, but the very consciousness of its momentariness will intensify its fire, which now is dissipated in dreams of eternal love beyond the grave'... and so on and so on in the same style. Charming! Ivan sat with his eyes on the floor, and his hands pressed to his ears, but he began trembling all over. The voice continued. (The devil) The question now is, my young thinker reflected, is it possible that such a period will ever come? If it does, everything is determined and humanity is settled for ever. But as, owing to man's inveterate stupidity, this cannot come about for at least a thousand years, everyone who recognises the truth even now may legitimately order his life as he pleases, on the new principles. In that sense, 'all things are lawful' for him. What's more, even if this period never comes to pass, since there is anyway no God and no immortality, the new man may well become the man-god, even if he is the only one in the whole world, and promoted to his new position, he may lightheartedly overstep all the barriers of the old morality of the old slaveman, if necessary. There is no law for God. Where God stands, the place is holy. Where I stand will be at once the foremost place... 'all things are lawful' and that's the end of it! That's all very charming; but if you want to swindle why do you want a moral sanction for doing it? But that's our modern Russian all over. He can't bring himself to swindle without a moral sanction. He is so in love with truth-. science truth moral-law Fyodor Dostoyevsky
5935d41 The thirst for knowledge is like a piece of ass you know you shouldn't chase; in the end, you chase it just the same. truth George Pelecanos
73ac0f5 I do not want to drive across a bridge designed by an engineer who believed the numbers in structural stress models are relative truths. truth relativism R.C. Sproul
9b43fe4 You're my equal. And as much as that means we have each other's backs in public, it also means we that grant each other the gift of honesty - of truth. relationships honesty truth partnership Sarah J. Maas
c7bf557 The hardest part about gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche. As long as that niche is occupied, evidence and proof and logical demonstration get nowhere. But once the niche is emptied of the wrong idea that has been filling it -- once you can honestly say, 'I don't know', then it becomes possible to get at the truth. truth Robert A. Heinlein
b18a399 It's harder to pick and choose when you're dead. It's like a photograph, you know. It doesn't matter as much. death-and-dying death truth self-censorship significance perspective etiquette Neil Gaiman
6341d65 Every secret of the body was rendered up--bone risen through flesh, sacrilegious glimpses of an intestine or an optic nerve. From this new and intimate perspective, [Briony] learned a simple, obvious thing she had always known, and everyone knew: that a person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn, not easily mended. philosophy truth body Ian McEwan
59a4e75 Truth is a continuous examination, and Fact... always supersedes belief. truth facts Yosef A.A. Ben-Jochannan
335e940 Also I didn't habe 20/20 vision whch you needed to be a pilot. But I said you could still want something that is very unlikely to happen. truth astronaut autism belief wishes Mark Haddon
47508aa BERENGER: And you consider all this natural? DUDARD: What could be more natural than a rhinoceros? BERENGER: Yes, but for a man to turn into a rhinoceros is abnormal beyond question. DUDARD: Well, of course, that's a matter of opinion ... BERENGER: It is beyond question, absolutely beyond question! DUDARD: You seem very sure of yourself. Who can say where the normal stops and the abnormal begins? Can you personally define these conceptions of normality and abnormality? Nobody has solved this problem yet, either medically or philosophically. You ought to know that. BERENGER: The problem may not be resolved philosophically -- but in practice it's simple. They may prove there's no such thing as movement ... and then you start walking ... [he starts walking up and down the room] ... and you go on walking, and you say to yourself, like Galileo, 'E pur si muove' ... DUDARD: You're getting things all mixed up! Don't confuse the issue. In Galileo's case it was the opposite: theoretic and scientific thought proving itself superior to mass opinion and dogmatism. BERENGER: [quite lost] What does all that mean? Mass opinion, dogmatism -- they're just words! I may be mixing everything up in my head but you're losing yours. You don't know what's normal and what isn't any more. I couldn't care less about Galileo ... I don't give a damn about Galileo. DUDARD: You brought him up in the first place and raised the whole question, saying that practice always had the last word. Maybe it does, but only when it proceeds from theory! The history of thought and science proves that. BERENGER: [more and more furious] It doesn't prove anything of the sort! It's all gibberish, utter lunacy! DUDARD: There again we need to define exactly what we mean by lunacy ... BERENGER: Lunacy is lunacy and that's all there is to it! Everybody knows what lunacy is. And what about the rhinoceroses -- are they practice or are they theory? theory truth mass-opinion practice Eugène Ionesco
4e2bec8 There are always choices. But sometimes there are no good ones. good choice reality truth worse worst bad decide decision choices evil Robin Hobb
cfb17e9 Every man had his personal habits, passions, and impulses toward goodness, beauty, and truth. goodness truth Leo Tolstoy
181683c Actions defined a man; words were a fart in the wind. life truth serious talk-is-cheap Mario Puzo
97d7969 A metaphor is a kind o' lie to help people understand what's true. truth Terry Pratchett
cda9bdb Someone who lies and someone who tells the truth are playing on opposite sides, so to speak, in the same game. Each responds to the facts as he understands them, although the response of the one is guided by the authority of the truth, while the response of the other defies that authority and refuses to meet its demands. The bullshitter ignores these demands altogether. He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are. truth lie Harry G. Frankfurt
a81821a What makes art Christian art? Is it simply Christian artists painting biblical subjects like Jeremiah? Or, by attaching a halo, does that suddenly make something Christian art? Must the artist's subject be religious to be Christian? I don't think so. There is a certain sense in which art is its own justification. If art is good art, if it is true art, if it is beautiful art, then it is bearing witness to the Author of the good, the true, and the beautiful christianity beauty god truth christian-art R.C. Sproul
f8a2ced If losing Sam had taught me anything, it was to seize life-seize everything it had to offer, including the tears, the anger and loss, but most of all, the laughter and the love. To just seize life. Because it was fleeting and it was fickle, and no one, not me or anyone I knew, had another day, let alone another second promised to them. life-lessons truth life-is-short Jennifer L. Armentrout
9e952f3 When we venture in that unfamiliar sea, we trust blindly in those who guide us, believing that they know more than we do. trust truth wisdom maxim guidance sea knowledge Paulo Coelho
e6e447c "I will go wherever the truth leads me. It is secular scholarship, Rebbe; it is not the scholarship of tradition. In secular scholarship there are no boundaries and no permanently fixed views." Lurie, if the Torah cannot go out into your world of scholarship and return stronger, then we are all fools and charlatans. I have faith in the Torah. I am not afraid of truth." truth torah Chaim Potok
a81fa2a Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools. strength truth J.K. Rowling
8b5f1ce The whole of world history often seems to me nothing more than a picture book which portrays humanity's most powerful and a senseless desire - the desire to forget. Does not each generation, by means of suppression, concealment, and ridicule, efface what the previous generation considered most important? reality truth Hermann Hesse
ea53f8a No matter how much we ask after the truth, self-awareness is often unpleasant. We do not feel kindly toward the Truthsayer. self-awareness identity truth Frank Herbert
ee2d77e He really is a cunt ay the first order. Nae about that. The big problem is, he's a mate na aw. Whit kin ye dae? truth junkie drunk Irvine Welsh
2a7dccf Queequeg was a native of Kokovoko, an island far away to the West and South. It is not down in any map; true places never are. truth Herman Melville
a69dd2a "...this sort of feels like green." "This is me being blue. Don't worry - you're still yellow" truth Katie McGarry
71f8bf3 "Do you believe in the value of truth, my dear, or don't you?" "Of course I believe in the truth," said Rhoda, staring. "Yes, you say that, but perhaps you haven't thought about it. The truth hurts sometimes - and destroys one's illusions." "I'd rather have it all the same." said Rhoda. "So would I. But I don't know that we're wise." Mrs. Oliver; Rhoda Dawes" truth Agatha Christie
42097c1 she is nearing forty and not so easily forgiven as when her skin bloomed like roses. truth Steve Martin
e7f0464 The longer one hesitates before the door, the more estranged one becomes. truth Franz Kafka
bc93eeb History tells us that six million Jews disappeared during that war. If there was no Holocaust, where did they go?' She shakes her head. 'All of that, and the world didn't learn anything. Look around. There's still ethnic cleansing. There's discrimination. truth historical society Jodi Picoult
a221ebd The truth sticks in our throats with all the sauces it is served with: it will never go down until we take it without any sauce at all. truth saint-joan George Bernard Shaw
e9b5631 Irony? Irony can never be more than our own personal Maginot line; the drawing of it, for the most part, purely arbitrary. philosophy truth Mark Z. Danielewski
1c531d2 I stood there and stared, into the sky and at the city around me. I stood, hands at my side, and I saw what had happened to me and who I was and the way things would always be for me. Truth. There was no more wishing, or wondering. I knew who I was, and what I would always do. I believed it, as my teeth touched and my eyes were overrun. truth wondering who-i-was wishing sky city Markus Zusak
db2d570 Things that look impossible suddenly seem a lot better, once you get God on board. god truth on-board impossible Jodi Picoult
8574689 You exaggerate everything. You continually force the truth because you're always looking for something. truth nausea Jean-Paul Sartre
15288b3 The truth. Men will blind themselves with hot irons, rather than face it. truth ignorance David Gemmell
95a1231 I've been working hard at assuming Court polish, but the more I learn about what really goes on behind the pretty voices and waving fans and graceful bows, the more I comprehend that what is really said matters little, so long as the manner in which it is said pleases. I understand it, but I don't like it. Were I truly influential, then I would halt this foolishness that decrees that in Court one cannot be sick; that to admit you are sick is really to admit to political or social or romantic defeat; that to admit to any emotions usually means one really feels the opposite. It is a terrible kind of falsehood that people can only claim feelings as a kind of social weapon. truth social-weapons falsehood Sherwood Smith
ef4cc75 We stumble on, thinks Jaslyn, bring a little noise into the silence, find in others the ongoing of ourselves. It is almost enough. humanity truth Colum McCann
2d8dc94 . . . who were run down by the drunken taxicabs of Absolute Reality. . . poetry truth Allen Ginsberg
5e281f9 For there is not a single human being, not even the primitive Negro, not even the idiot, who is so conveniently simple that his being can be explained as the sum of two or three principal elements; and to explain so complex a man as Harry by the artless division into wolf and man is a hopelessly childish attempt. Harry consists of a hundred or a thousand selves, not of two. His life oscillates, as everyone's does, not merely between two poles, such as the body and the spirit, the saint and the sinner, but between thousand and thousands. spirituality philosophy truth soul Hermann Hesse
8958dc8 The greater part of the truth is always hidden, in regions out of the reach of cynicism. truth hiding J.R.R. Tolkien
d8a6312 "Being in love is...anxious," he said. "Wanting to please, worrying that she will see me as I really am. But wanting to be known. That is...you're naked, moaning in the dark, no dignity at all...I wanted her to see me and to love me even though she knew everything I am, and I knew her" love-quotes inspiration life love truth naked Audrey Niffenegger
e8e6ec1 I'd seen glimpses of a different me. It was a different me because in those increments of time I thought I actually became a winner. The truth, however, is painful. It was a truth that told me with a scratching internal brutality that I was me, and that winning wan't natural for me. It had to be fought for, in the echoes and trodden footprints of my mind. In a way, I had to scavenge for moments of alrightness. mind truth scavenge footprints winning brutality natural Markus Zusak
c527eb0 Fictional people are people, too, otherwise why would we care what happens to them? romance truth Nora Roberts
ebd74b3 A man craves ultimate truths. Every mortal mind, I think, is that way. But what is ultimate truth? It's the end of the road, where there is no more mystery, no more hope. And no more questions to ask, since all the answers have been given. But there is no such place. The Universe is a labyrinth made of labyrinths. Each leads to another. And wherever we cannot go ourselves, we reach with mathematics. Out of mathematics we build wagons to carry us into the nonhuman realms of the world. universe science truth Stanisław Lem
4d25709 There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake. [...] The truth is that when an author begins to write for the sake of covering paper, he is cheating the reader; because he writes under the pretext that he has something to say. writing truth authorship Arthur Schopenhauer
82fd6a1 You can tell people the truth, but they'll never believe you until the event. Until it's too late. In the meantime, the truth will just piss them off and get you in a lot of trouble. So you just walk home. reality life truth Chuck Palahniuk
b187a2b You should be spreading the good word. You should be etching the good word onto the glass scanning beds of library photocopiers. You should be scraping the truth onto old auto parts and throwing them off bridges so that people digging in the mud in a million years will question the world, too. You should be carving eyeballs into tire treads and onto shoe soles so that your every trail speaks of thinking and faith and belief. You should be designing molecules that crystallize into poems of devotion. You should be making bar codes that print out truth, not lies. You shouldn't even throw away a piece of litter unless it has the truth stamped on it--a demand for people to reach a finer place! ...Your new life will be tinged with urgency, as though you're digging out the victims of an avalanche. If you're not spending every waking moment of your life living the truth, if you're not plotting every moment to boil the carcass of the old order, then you're wasting your day. truth urgency Douglas Coupland
05f8fcc "But what do you say if you're asked a direct question and you can't tell the truth and you can't tell a lie?' 'You say "how very interesting" and change the subject." truth Dick Francis
ad3bda3 While you're governing the colony and I'm writing political philosophy, They'll never guess that in the darkness of night we sneak into each other's room and play checkers and have pillow fights. kids reality life love truth ender humans Orson Scott Card
23c6361 I did not know then what Brother William was seeking, and to tell the truth, I still do not know today, and I presume he himself did not know, moved as he was solely by the desire for truth, and by the suspicion - which I could see he always harbored - that the truth was not what was appearing to him at any given moment. truth suspicion Umberto Eco
37bcf19 Relationships should be built on trust and truth. relationship secret trust truth Sophie Kinsella
57f9240 "It is a mistake," he said, "to suppose that the public wants the environment protected or their lives saved and that they will be grateful to any idealist who will fight for such ends. What the public wants is their own individual comfort." truth wisdom lost-values needs-and-wants self-injurious-behaviors social-satire-predictability the-way-the-world-works prophetic hedonism human-nature Isaac Asimov
2008602 Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah. The simplest questions are the most profound. Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What are you doing? Think about these once in awhile and watch your answers change. truth richard-bach Richard Bach
d0053dc Fiction is Truth's elder sister. Obviously. No one in the world knew what truth was till some one had told a story. truth Rudyard Kipling
03ad25d "I shrugged. "I guess that guys who'd never do something like that have a hard time believing some other guy would," I said, but I could see her point. Awareness and apologies were fine and good, but they could come too late." -- life-lessons truth too-little-too-late Tammara Webber
eea49f1 Anything that can be dreamed is true. truth Joanne Harris
a44189e What is is?' 'I don't know. I don't even know if it's true or if it's a dream.' 'That's alright. Truth and Dreams are always getting muddled. truth David Almond
b798f19 I'm very gullible when it comes to my own words. I believe everything I say, though I know I am a liar. words lies reality truth inspirational Roger Zelazny
edda854 Where no paths exist, a man strays only when he misses his destination. There is no crime, no transgression, no sin save foolishness or incompetence, and no obscenity save the tyranny of custom. truth R. Scott Bakker
6a2b7e3 Only God may be adored, because only God is unlimited goodness, truth, and beauty, and thus only God deserves unlimited love. christianity goodness beauty spirituality god love philosophy truth inspirational unlimited-beauty unlimited-goodness unlimited-love unlimited-truth jesus-shock catholicism theology Peter Kreeft
19cdc45 She knows the truth can cause a sharp pain behind your eyes and that love sometimes feels like a fist around your throat. pain love truth Jodi Picoult
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