Truth
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6.The human aversion to truth and the flight from it
6a.Self-love, flattery and the hatred of reproof
Sophocles, Oedipus the KingVol. 8
- p. 218Teiresias claims the strength of truth and names Oedipus as the murderer; Oedipus retorts truth is for all but him.read · scan
Plato, The Apology of SocratesVol. 2
- p. 11Hatred aroused by his plainness is itself proof he speaks the truth.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On FriendshipVol. 9
- p. 38–39Enemies often tell the truth, pleasant friends never; one who cannot bear plain speaking is beyond help.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 179Men love truth when it enlightens and hate it when it reproves; the mind wants to hide yet deceives itself.read · scan
Niccolò Machiavelli, The PrinceVol. 36
- p. 76–77Only by showing no offence at truth can flattery be avoided, but universal frankness loses respect.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46
- p. 233Truth is whipped like a dog to kennel while flatterers stay by the fire; the Fool is punished for speaking true or lying.read · scan
- p. 233–236The Fool is whipped for speaking true, for lying and for silence.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 42–43Man conceives mortal enmity against the truth that reproves his faults.read · scan
- p. 43We hate truth and those who tell it, preferring to be esteemed as other than we are.read · scan
- p. 43–44Aversion to truth is inseparable from self-love; reprovers use windings and praise, yet the medicine stays bitter.read · scan
- p. 44We hate truth and desire flattery, so others hide it from us; the higher we rise the further from truth.read · scan
- p. 45Man is disguise, falsehood and hypocrisy; he neither wants truth told him nor tells it to others.read · scan
John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18
- p. 77Ventidius insists he does not lie about Cleopatra's behavior; Antony calls it a lie.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 449–451Only those whom truth would indict fear it being heard.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5
- p. 263–264Men in truth love being convicted and shamed out of nonsense, craving reality more than flattery.read · scan
- p. 265–266We wish to be confuted by reformers, sensing they hold a secret we need.read · scan
6b.Self-deception, pleasant illusion and obstinacy
Euripides, The BacchaeVol. 8
- p. 430–432Agave realizes the head is Pentheus'; 'O cruel Truth' as she learns she killed him.read · scan
Plato, PhaedoVol. 2
- p. 104Men are deceived about their position, like a creature at the sea bottom, through feebleness and sluggishness.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 124–125Petrifaction of understanding is obstinately refusing plain truths and maintaining self-contradiction.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 251Every soul is involuntarily deprived of truth, justice, temperance, so be gentle toward all.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 193–194Fears he deceives himself and fails to do the truth before God in heart and tongue.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 407Men err, some knowingly, leaving philosophy's track for love of singularity and desire to shine.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 367Cellini claims to discern the truth with purer senses, while Bandinello's malice distorts what he sees.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 7Men love lies for their own sake; truth is plain daylight, less stately than candle-lights, while a mixture of falsehood adds pleasure.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The TempestVol. 46
- p. 399Telling a lie so often that the liar believes it.read · scan
Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Philaster, or Love Lies A-BleedingVol. 47
- p. 690–691Arethusa says a pleasing lie of his love is more welcome than a truth that he loves her not.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 43Man hides his faults from others and himself, refusing to recognise them, adding voluntary illusion to fault.read · scan
- p. 54Lacking self-knowledge, men cannot give the true reply that they seek only occupation turning thoughts from self.read · scan
- p. 95–96Those who do not love truth use its being disputed as pretext, and so are without excuse.read · scan
- p. 96No truth is so general that it has no exception, giving pretext to evade it.read · scan
- p. 125We conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves; discourses on scepticism make believers affirm.read · scan
- p. 135–136Passions obscure knowledge of truth.read · scan
- p. 191The feeble-minded affirm truth only as far as consistent with their interest.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 402–403A struggle between knowing truth and feeling pleasure has uncertain outcome.read · scan
John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18
- p. 77Ventidius forces Alexas to speak plain truth; Antony shuts his eyes to it.read · scan
William Penn, More Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 382We believe what pleases rather than what is true.read · scan
- p. 385Obstinacy prefers sullen pride to reasonable submission to truth.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 242Philosophers who could know truth from falsehood would prefer their own falsehood to another's truth.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 108–110Error is sent abroad instead of truth, and men believe words must mean something.read · scan
Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, The Federalist, Nos. I and IIVol. 43
- p. 199–200Passions and prejudices of particular interests are unfavorable to the discovery of truth.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 229Truth must become a force by enlisting an instinct; its weakness lies in the closed heart, not the understanding.read · scan
- p. 229–230Men cling to pleasant illusions and resist truth that would rob them of what they value.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 516–517Contradicting evidence is resisted with ever-curious arguments until the display of corpses forces belief.read · scan
- p. 533Truth has a secret outlet in domestic confidence while the public error prevails.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Inaugural Address at EdinburghVol. 25
- p. 385A distorted mind cannot see the truth of a matter without endless groping.read · scan
Hans Christian Andersen, TalesVol. 17
- p. 317–318She insists she is a young lady and finer than before, deceiving herself despite reality.read · scan
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Contagiousness of Puerperal FeverVol. 38
- p. 231Blundell notes how hard it is to obtain exact truth where feelings and interests are concerned.read · scan
- p. 249–250Claims attempts to disguise the unwelcome truth, established at cost of many lives, are useless.read · scan
Robert Browning, A Blot in the 'ScutcheonVol. 18
- p. 373He will not blind himself to light or call truth false and lie to God and himself.read · scan
James Russell Lowell, Abraham LincolnVol. 28
- p. 444Sophistry is dangerous through the grain of truth mingled with falsehood, and the honesty of followers seduced.read · scan
6c.Indifference and negligence in the search
Euripides, The BacchaeVol. 8
- p. 427–430Cadmus wonders whether knowing the painful truth is worse than ignorant darkness.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 64–65Men discover truths of creation yet do not seek Truth, the Artificer, and so turn His truth into a lie.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 14–15Ignorance of truth; error preferable to purposeless curiosity.read · scan
- p. 29Remarks that too much truth is paralysing, listing it among excesses our limited nature cannot bear; truth as an extreme beyond our capacity.read · scan
- p. 52In disputes we like the clash of opinions, but not contemplating truth once found.read · scan
- p. 69Unbelievers are negligent in searching for truth yet complain nothing reveals it.read · scan
- p. 70Negligent, superficial search for truth is condemned; the matter concerns our all.read · scan
- p. 74Not desiring the truth of eternal promises shows bad disposition; troubled doubters should avow it honestly.read · scan
- p. 75Indifference to the search for truth on so important a matter is sinful and foolish.read · scan
- p. 76Men refuse to examine proofs, ignorant whether truth or falsity lies in the matter.read · scan
Hans Christian Andersen, TalesVol. 17
- p. 323–325The Learned Man writes about the true, good and beautiful but no one cares to hear it.read · scan
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