Truth
Outline · 2 ›
1.The nature of truth and falsehood
1a.Truth as the right ordering of speech and as agreement with things
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 325–326Truth and falsehood are attributes of speech, not of things; truth lies in the right ordering of names in affirmations.read · scan
David Hume, Of the Standard of TasteVol. 27
- p. 205Of many opinions only one is true, while all sentiments are right as they refer only to themselves.read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37
- p. 296There is truth and falsehood in propositions about the mind, within human understanding.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 247Truth depends on existence of things, not on the judging understanding; hence sentiment is confirmed by reason.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 243–244Feeling says a thing is true for this subject and moment; thought's assertions carry universality and necessity.read · scan
- p. 272Truth is produced by thinking force in its own liberty, not received from outside like sensible reality.read · scan
Edward Augustus Freeman, Race and LanguageVol. 28
- p. 238–239Scientific accuracy versus practical truth: a statement not exact may be truer for the purpose at hand.read · scan
- p. 242–244Men may lie or err, unlike triangles and rocks.read · scan
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, The TidesVol. 30
- p. 305A theory carefully weighed and found at variance with the facts on essential points.read · scan
1b.Truth as unity, constancy and partial possession
Buddhist WritingsVol. 45
- p. 656–657Insight that no Ego exists is knowledge of the truth; belief in persistence or annihilation of a self falls short or outruns it.read · scan
- p. 657–658Some fall short of the truth, some outrun it; the intelligent know things as they really are.read · scan
The Bhagavad-Gita; or, Song CelestialVol. 45
- p. 869–870Dark intellect sees all things contrariwise of truth, while good intellect grasps the calm truth.read · scan
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34
- p. 17–18Truth on any point is one; whoever apprehends it knows all that can be known there.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 12–13Men err from not seeing all sides, not from falsity of the side seen.read · scan
- p. 15–16Truths are independent, each keeping its own place.read · scan
- p. 103Truth on one side of the Pyrenees, error on the other.read · scan
- p. 114The people do not perceive truth where it is, so their sound opinions are false.read · scan
- p. 116Truth is in the people's opinions but not where they imagine it.read · scan
- p. 127Everything is partly true and partly false; pure essential truth is not found among human things.read · scan
- p. 294Truth is one and constant.read · scan
- p. 300–301Many truths seem to contradict yet cohere.read · scan
- p. 301Truths of faith and morality hold together in a wonderful system.read · scan
- p. 302Error lies in following one truth while omitting another; truth is obscure and unless loved cannot be known.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Preface to ShakespeareVol. 39
- p. 209–210Novelty delights briefly, but the mind reposes on the stability of truth.read · scan
- p. 238–239Truth and error alternately displace each other; opinions held beyond controversy in one age are rejected in another.read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1
- p. 191Truth is one, as the world is one; those single to truth rejoice amid adversity.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 225The individual errs through exclusive faculties but the species is led to truth; truth makes martyrs while philosophy seeks arms against error.read · scan
- p. 231Truth continues to live in illusion, and the copy will reestablish the model.read · scan
Walter Savage Landor, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 900–902Truth can ne'er decay, whatever fate befalls.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, CharacteristicsVol. 25
- p. 350Truth never is, always is a-being, in Schiller's words.read · scan
- p. 351Carlyle: no Truth of Goodness realised by man ever dies; enduring truth underlies changing forms against Pyrrhonism.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-RelianceVol. 5
- p. 77Light of truth is unsystematic and indomitable and will break through any system.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5
- p. 269The whole truth is known within though never fully expressed; discourse only approximates it.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 102–103Both warring centuries hold half truths, like the shield white on one side, black on the other.read · scan
James Russell Lowell, DemocracyVol. 28
- p. 464Truth wears a different face to everybody; she lies in a well where each sees his own image.read · scan
Edward Augustus Freeman, Race and LanguageVol. 28
- p. 233–235Popular mind grasps one side of a truth without scientific precision, distorting it.read · scan
1c.God as the Truth, and truth as divine or eternal
The Bhagavad-Gita; or, Song CelestialVol. 45
- p. 805The fire of truth burns clean the act of the wise man.read · scan
- p. 805–809Truth removes error and brings the soul to higher peace.read · scan
- p. 853–855Soothfastness (sattva) binds the soul to truth and light; souls fixed in it go to the place of those who know all Truth, while ignorance brings darkness.read · scan
Luke, The Gospel According to LukeVol. 44
- p. 374–375Nothing hidden shall fail to be made manifest; the light is set on a stand.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 264Lying is impiety; universal nature is truth and the prime cause of all true things.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 35Manichaeans cried 'Truth' but their hearts lacked it; Augustine hungered for God, the Truth without variableness.read · scan
- p. 57–58The soul must be enlightened by God, the true light, to partake of truth.read · scan
- p. 67Truth is independent of style; God alone teaches it, wherever it may shine.read · scan
- p. 109–110Truth, eternity and love are identified with God; truth is more certain than his own life though not spread through space.read · scan
- p. 113Judging what ought to be reveals an unchangeable Eternity of Truth above the mind.read · scan
- p. 178A happy life is joy in the truth; all love truth and none wish to be deceived, and truth is God.read · scan
- p. 195–196God is the Truth who presides over all; no one lies without knowing the truth, so he lost God.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 297Blessed spirits cannot lie, dwelling near the source of primal truth; both Piccarda and Beatrice spoke truly.read · scan
- p. 297The mind rests only in the ultimate Truth, as a beast in its lair; doubt springs like a shoot from truth.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 207Happy is he whom Truth teaches directly; our judgment deceives us, and God is the Truth.read · scan
- p. 210–211The truth of the Lord endures while men pass away.read · scan
- p. 259–260God addressed as Eternal Truth who enkindles the heart within.read · scan
- p. 275–276Truth of the Lord endures forever while men's praise passes.read · scan
- p. 308–309Faithfulness of men is unreliable; God alone is most faithful.read · scan
- p. 328–329Christ is the Way, Truth and Life; knowing the truth makes one free.read · scan
John Calvin, Dedication of the Institutes of the Christian ReligionVol. 39
- p. 35–38In God's kingdom only eternal truth should be heard, which no custom or passage of years can circumscribe.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 391Without faith we cannot know if our faculties were made to know truth; God and truth are inseparable.read · scan
- p. 393Learned doctors' hearts are void of truth without God.read · scan
- p. 395–396Minds imitate essential truth even in shunning it.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 242The formal instinct wishes the real to be necessary and eternal, thus tending toward truth and justice.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, CharacteristicsVol. 25
- p. 332A great truth about mystery, forgotten in our times, remains forever true.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Over-SoulVol. 5
- p. 138–139The soul perceives truth as we know waking from dream; intelligence is discerning true as true and false as false.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CirclesVol. 5
- p. 151Truth in a man rests on the divine soul; no statement of it is final.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CharacterVol. 5
- p. 186Truth is the summit of being and inevitably makes itself believed; lies and theft cannot finally prevail.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, WorshipVol. 5
- p. 283Emerson says the nature of things works for truth and right forever; the unity and sincerity of the universe.read · scan
1d.Falsehood as non-being and dependent on truth
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 112All things are true so far as they are; falsehood is thinking that to be which is not.read · scan
- p. 170–171Falsehoods once objected are remembered as false, and he remembers discerning them from truths.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 170No falsehood can endure the touch of celestial temper, returning to its own likeness.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 283Falsehood presupposes truth.read · scan
- p. 283The human mind, inclined toward truth, becomes susceptible to falsehoods.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5
- p. 99–100Falsehood is nothing and begets no fact; nature and truth flow from Being.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5
- p. 267No pure lie exists; men refuse assent only because the speaker lacks the authentic sign of truth.read · scan
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