Epistemology

"Yes, there is a Divinity, one from which we must never turn aside for the guidance of our huge inward life and of the share we have as well in the life of all men. It is called the truth."

"The truth is the truth. You tell it even when it hurts or it loses value even when it doesn’t."

"The progress of man consists in this, that he himself arrives at the perception of truth."

"They speak falsely who say that truth is the daughter of time; it is the child of eternity, and as old as the Divine mind. The perception of it takes place in the order of time; truth itself knows nothing of the succession of ages."

"In the church in which I was raised you were supposed to bear witness to the truth. Now, later on, you wonder what in the world the truth is, but you do know what a lie is."

"You must never run away from the truth, Jake, however unpleasant. Because once you begin running, you can never stop."

"All right ideas are temporary in nature, and must eventually take their place as partial rights, and give place to the greater truth. The fact of the day is seen later as part of a greater fact. A man can have grasped some of the lesser principles of the Ageless Wisdom so clearly, and be so convinced of their correctness, that the bigger whole is forgotten and he builds a thought-form about the partial truth which he has seen, (and) which can prove a limitation and keep him a prisoner and hold him back from progress. He is so sure of his possession of the truth, that he can see the truth of no one else. He can be so convinced of the reality of his own embodied concept of what the truth may be, that he forgets his own brain limitations, and that the truth has come to him via his own soul, and is consequently coloured by his ray, being subsequently built into form by his personal separative mind. He lives but for that little truth; he can see no other; he forces his thought-form on other people; he becomes the obsessed fanatic and so mentally unbalanced, even if the world regards him as sane."

"The problems confronting us should be faced with courage, with truth and understanding; as well as with the willingness to speak factually, with simplicity and with love in the effort to expose the truth and clarify the problems which must be solved. The opposing forces of entrenched evil must be routed before He for Whom all men wait, the Christ, can come."

"Certain great concepts are firmly grasped by man. Certain great hopes are taking form and will become the pattern of man's living. Certain great speculations will become experimental theories, and later prove demonstrated facts... A great stirring and moving is going on."

"Buddha answered the questions posited in His time by giving the Four Noble Truths, which satisfactorily and eternally answer man's demand of why."

"There is no finality in the presentation of truth; it develops and grows to meet man's growing demand for light."

"But no pleasure is comparable to standing upon the vantage ground of truth."

"What is truth? said jesting Pilate, but would not stay for an answer."

"The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search for truth. So it does more harm than good."

"Not being known doesn't stop the truth from being true."

"The reasons for putting humanistic truth above scientific truth are not metaphysical but very practical: the discipline that helps man to self-mastery is found to have a more important bearing on his happiness than the discipline that helps him to a mastery of physical nature. If scientific discipline is not supplemented by a truly humanistic or religious discipline the result is unethical science, and unethical science is perhaps the worst monster that has yet been turned loose on the race. Man in spite of what I have termed his stupidity, his persistent evasion of the main issue, the issue of his own happiness, will awaken sooner or later to the fearful evil he has already suffered from a science that has arrogated to itself what does not properly belong to it; and then science may be as unduly depreciated as it has, for the past century or two, been unduly magnified; so that in the long run it is in the interest of science itself to keep in its proper place, which is below both humanism and religion."

"You must be ever vigilant to discover the unifying Truth behind all the scintillating variety."

"Change in our views seems to be the only permanent phenomenon, and in no science has the maxim: "Much arises which has already perished, and what is now honored is already declining," attained such extended verification as in the very science of medicine. Even so in this same science has been proven the truth of that other saying: "As long at man struggles he errs". To err in its struggles after the truth is, however, according to the resigned expression of Lessing, the portion of humanity, and absolute truth is of God alone."

"Truth means that which actually is, as opposed to lies, incorrect beliefs, fantasies or foolishness, and exists independently of thinkers."

"These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I, with greater policy, concealed my struggles, and flattered you into the belief of my being impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination; by reason, by reflection, by everything. But disguise of every sort is my abhorrence. Nor am I ashamed of the feelings I related. They were natural and just."

"First of all, there is undoubtedly a Truth one and eternal which we are seeking, from which all other truth derives, by the light of which all other truth finds its right place, explanation and relation to the scheme of knowledge … Secondly, this Truth, though it is one and eternal, expresses itself in Time and through the mind of man; therefore every Scripture must necessarily contain two elements, one temporary, perishable, belonging to the ideas of the period and country in which it was produced, the other eternal and imperishable and applicable in all ages and countries."

"Why, then, does truth generate hatred, and why does thy servant who preaches the truth come to be an enemy to them who also love the happy life, which is nothing else than joy in the truth - unless it be that truth is loved in such a way that those who love something else besides her wish that to be the truth which they do love. Since they are unwilling to be deceived, they are unwilling to be convinced that they have been deceived. Therefore, they hate the truth for the sake of whatever it is that they love in place of the truth. They love truth when she shines on them; and hate her when she rebukes them."

"You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can't lead to a good conclusion."

"Our No. 1 enemy is ignorance. And I believe that is the No. 1 enemy for everyone — it's not understanding what actually is going on in the world."

"To say of what is, that it is, or of what is not, that it is not, is true."

"Alll that is true, from anyone it is said, [always] comes from the Holy Spirit."

"Truth is the ultimate end of the whole universe."

"Time, beneath whose influence the pyramids moulder into dust, and the flinty rocks decay, does not and cannot destroy a fact, nor strip a truth of one portion of its essential importance."

"The truth is not something ready-made outside of us, which we should merely reproduce, as the old empiricism believed; but it is an ever-new product of our cognitive activity that elevates the world of experience to a higher form of life. It is commonly said that in the search for truth we must strive to reflect objective reality; but this is an absurd claim, because no one can ever step outside of experience to compare their ideas with so-called things in themselves."

"Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency."

"Yet the deepest truths are best read between the lines, and, for the most part, refuse to be written."

"The truth which makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear."

"Truth is strong enough to overcome all human sophistries."

"Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth."

"The national argument right now is, one, who's got the truth and, two, who's got the facts… Until we can manage to get the two of them back together again, we're not going to make much progress."

"If you want to be thought a liar, always tell the truth"

"Truths can be multiple and are revealed by the order of events. [...] Each moment is a consequence of the previous moment. So truths can be complex, and complexity is articulated by its details. Anyone who refuses to hear the details is making a deliberate decision not to understand."

"When truth cannot make itself known in words, it will make itself known in deeds."

"Contra primus itaque causas pugnare debemus; causa autem iracundiae opinio iniuriae est, cui non facile credendum est. Ne apertis quidem manifestisque statim accedendum; quaedam enim falsa ueri speciem ferunt. Dandum semper est tempus: ueritatem dies aperit."

"A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is 'merely relative,' is asking you not to believe him. So don't."

"Time's glory is to calm contending kings, To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light."

"That truth should be silent I had almost forgot."

"To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."

"If circumstances lead me, I will find Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed Within the centre."

"Mark now, how a plain tale shall put you down."

"Tell truth and shame the devil. If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither, And I'll be sworn I have power to shame him hence."

"What, can the devil speak true?"

"But 'tis strange: And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray's In deepest consequence."

"Truth is truth To the end of reckoning."

"But wonder on, till truth make all things plain."