Ah yes, truth. Funny how everyone is always asking for it but when they get it they don't believe it because it's not the truth they want to hear.
“A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal in satisfying his vices. And it all comes from lying to others and to yourself.” ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)
The Brothers Karamazov
“There are in fact four very significant stumblingblocks in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to wisdom, namely, the example of weak and unworthy authority, longstanding custom, the feeling of the ignorant crowd, and the hiding of our own ignorance while making a display of our apparent knowledge.” ~ Roger Bacon (1220-1292)
Opus Majus, 1266-67
“Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings -- that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.” ~ Buddha [Gautama Siddharta] (563 - 483 BC), Hindu Prince, founder of Buddhism
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” ~ John Adams (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President
'Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials,' December 1770
“The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.” ~ Herbert Sebastien Agar (1897-1980) American journalist and historian, editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal.
The Time for Greatness, 1942
“Men prefer to believe what they prefer to be true.” ~ Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Philosopher, British Lord Chancellor
“A truth that's told with bad intent, beats all the lies you can invent.” ~ William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, painter, engraver
"Auguries of Innocence," Poems from the Pickering Manuscript
“We must abandon the prevalent belief in the superior wisdom of the ignorant.” ~ Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004) American historian, professor, attorney, writer, Librarian of the United States Congress (1975-1987)
“The mortalist enemy unto knowledge, and that which hath done the greatest execution unto truth, has been a preemptory adhesion unto authority.” ~ Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682)
Religio Medici, 1642
“By academic freedom I understand the right to search for truth and to publish and teach what one holds to be true. This right implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true.” ~ Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921
Letter on his seventy-fifth birthday, 1954
Ah yes, truth. Funny how everyone is always asking for it but when they get it they don't believe it because it's not the truth they want to hear.
“A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal in satisfying his vices. And it all comes from lying to others and to yourself.” ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) The Brothers Karamazov
“There are in fact four very significant stumblingblocks in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to wisdom, namely, the example of weak and unworthy authority, longstanding custom, the feeling of the ignorant crowd, and the hiding of our own ignorance while making a display of our apparent knowledge.” ~ Roger Bacon (1220-1292) Opus Majus, 1266-67
“Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings -- that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.” ~ Buddha [Gautama Siddharta] (563 - 483 BC), Hindu Prince, founder of Buddhism
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” ~ John Adams (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President 'Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials,' December 1770
“The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.” ~ Herbert Sebastien Agar (1897-1980) American journalist and historian, editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal. The Time for Greatness, 1942
“Men prefer to believe what they prefer to be true.” ~ Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Philosopher, British Lord Chancellor
“A truth that's told with bad intent, beats all the lies you can invent.” ~ William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, painter, engraver "Auguries of Innocence," Poems from the Pickering Manuscript
“We must abandon the prevalent belief in the superior wisdom of the ignorant.” ~ Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004) American historian, professor, attorney, writer, Librarian of the United States Congress (1975-1987)
“The mortalist enemy unto knowledge, and that which hath done the greatest execution unto truth, has been a preemptory adhesion unto authority.” ~ Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) Religio Medici, 1642
“By academic freedom I understand the right to search for truth and to publish and teach what one holds to be true. This right implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true.” ~ Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921 Letter on his seventy-fifth birthday, 1954