Epistemology

"The errors of great men are venerable because they are more fruitful then the truths of little men."

"I think that natural truths will cease to be spat at us like insults, that aesthetics will once more be linked with ethics, and that people will become aware that in casting out aesthetics that they also cast out a respect for human life, a respect for creation, a respect for spiritual values. Aesthetics was an expression of man's need to be in love with his world. The cult of ugliness is a regression. It destroys our appetite, our love for our world."

"There are most certainly two distinguishable kinds of truths, “truths of reason” (that two plus two equals four) and “truths of fact” (that the sky appears blue). By his resort to his daimon Socrates added the class of “truths of self,” personal truths."

"Concerning the truth at hand he [Socrates] was saying, yes, surely, it is a truth a reason or a truth of fact, but before I offer it I must discover whether it is a personal truth and a part of myself, for otherwise I must leave its enunciation to others."

"All truth is ancient. The enticement of novelty lies only in its expressive variations. The greater the contrast in outward appearance, the greater the joy of recognition."

"As President Bush just said, a great nation doesn’t shy from the truth. It strengthens us. It emboldens us. It should fortify us."

"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle."

"Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible... If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened — that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death? And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed — if all records told the same tale — then the lie passed into history and became truth. Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. 'Reality control', they called it: in Newspeak, 'doublethink'..."

"The past, he reflected, had not merely been altered, it had been actually destroyed. For how could you establish even the most obvious fact when there existed no record outside your own memory?... To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself... That was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word ‘doublethink’ involved the use of doublethink."

"I have a hard time with historians because they idolize the truth. The truth is not uplifting; it destroys. I could tell most of the secretaries in the church office building that they are ugly and fat. That would be the truth, but it would hurt and destroy them. Historians should tell only that part of the truth that is inspiring and uplifting."

"Truth will triumph. It always does. However, I figure truth is a variable, so we're right back where we started from."

"Such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing. The sun needs no inscription to distinguish him from darkness."

"The truth always made Jayn uncomfortable; it wasn't quite so flexible as a good lie."

"For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth."

"This is fine and acceptable in the sight of our Savior, God, whose will is that all sorts of people should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth."

"[Snowden]'s done a great service, because he's telling the truth and this is what we are starved for. The American people are starved for the truth. And when you have a dictatorship or an authoritarian government, truth becomes treasonous. For somebody to tell the American people the truth is a heroic effort."

"Those philosophers who believe in the absolute logic of truth have never had to discuss it on close terms with a woman."

"Gentlemen, that is surely true, it is absolutely paradoxical; we cannot understand it, and we don't know what it means. But we have proved it, and therefore we know it must be the truth."

"The science of Logic is said to have been originated by Aristotle. ...actual reasoning is little dependent upon a knowledge of this science. Some of the greatest feats of reasoning which history records occurred before Aristotle was born, before logic was recognized as a science. Logic enables us to compel assent to propositions, rather than to discover truth. In other words, it too often constitutes merely a training in the art of disputation."

"Your Honour, the courtroom is a crucible. In it we burn away irrelevancies until we are left with a pure product, the truth for all time."

"The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it's scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based! If you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don't deserve to wear that uniform!"

"We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies. If he only shows in his work that he has searched, and re-searched, for the way to put over lies, he would never accomplish anything."

"What is truth?"

"Are you not ashamed that you give your attention to acquiring as much money as possible, and similarly with reputation and honor, and give no attention or thought to truth and understanding and the perfection of your soul?"

"The truth is so lovable that it has only to be known to be embraced."

"'Tis not enough your counsel still be true; Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do."

"Truth is a liberal value, and it is a conservative value, but it is not a leftist value."

"I realize, however, that, since the truth does not please everyone, there are many who will become my enemies for thus having borne witness to the truth ."

"The truth isn’t easily pinned to a page. In the bathtub of history the truth is harder to hold than the soap, and much more difficult to find..."

"“We are armed with the truth. What can harm us if we are armed with the truth?” “Well, a crossbow bolt can, e.g., go right through your eye and out the back of your head,” said Sergeant Colon."

"“Granny was certainly not telling the truth,” said Agnes. “Of course she wasn’t, she never does,” said Magrat. “She expects you to work it out for yourself.”"

"The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret."

"No truth can be said to be seen as it is until it is seen in its relation to all other truths. In this relation only is it true."

"In order to arrive at a true understanding of what is, and is eternally, one must first necessarily begin with and proceed from a correct understanding of the overall nature of our time as apprehended in thought."

"Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven."

"You are near, O Jehovah, and all your commandments are truth. The very essence of your word is truth, and all your righteous judgments endure forever."

"Superman: I’m here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way."

"Truth is naked. Truth was, is, and will ever be. But we humans like to wear masks."

"And do not mix the truth with falsehood or conceal the truth while you know (it)."

"The Truth is from thy Lord, so be not of the disputers."

"Such then is Allah, your true Lord. And what is there after the truth but error? How then are you turned away!"

"(Muhammad), ask them, "Can any of your idols guide you to the Truth?" Say, "Only God guides to the Truth." Is the one who guides to the Truth a proper guide or one who himself cannot find guidance unless he is guided (by others)? What is wrong with you that you judge (so unjustly)?"

"O mankind, indeed the promise of God is truth, so let not the worldly life delude you and be not deceived about God by the Deceiver."

"Or say they: There is madness in him? Nay, he has brought them the Truth, and most of them hate the Truth. And if the Truth follow their desires, the heavens and the earth and all those who are therein would perish. Nay, We have brought them their reminder, but they turn away from their reminder."

"And how many angels are in the heavens, whose intercession avails naught except after Allah gives permission to whom He pleases and chooses. Surely those who believe not in the Hereafter name the angels with female names. And they have no knowledge of it. They follow but conjecture, and surely conjecture avails naught against Truth."

"It is extremely easy to find people who speak pleasantly. But it is rare to find people who speak and hear true words even when they are not pleasing to hear."

"Truth is not limited to its material vessels."

"Truth is truth, no matter who else believes it."

"See they conducted experiments on convicts ... I don't know on what grounds they reason a man in jail is a bigger liar than one out of jail ... The chances are telling the truth is what got him there ... It would be a big aid to humanity, but it will never be, for already the politicians are up in arms against it ... It would wreck the very foundation on which our political government is run ... If you ever injected truth into politics you'd have no politics … Even the ministers are denouncing it now … Humanity is not yet ready for either real truth or real harmony."

"Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth."