Truth - Quotes

The greatest friend of Truth is time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice. - Charles Caleb Colton

The greatest homage we can pay to truth, is to use it. - James Russell Lowell

The ultimate truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They are not the Way. - Bodhidharma

It is truth that liberates, not your effort to be free. - Jiddu Krishnamurti

If you want to assert a truth, first make sure it’s not just an opinion that you desperately want to be true. - Neil deGrasse Tyson

Some truths may be proclaimed upon the housetop; others may be spoken by the fireside; still others must be whispered in the ear of a friend. - Rossiter Johnson

Sometimes it is easier to see clearly into the liar than into the man who tells the truth. Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object. - Albert Camus

Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed. - Friedrich Nietzsche

Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. - Unknown

The inquiry of Truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it, the knowledge of Truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of Truth which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. - Francis Bacon

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousand fold. - Aristotle

The most dangerous untruths are truths moderately distorted. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

The most effectual method of expelling error, is, not to meet it sword in hand, but gradually to instil great truths, with which it cannot easily coexist. - William E. Channing

The naked truth is always better than the best-dressed lie. - Ann Landers

The only thing in the world we really possess is our knowledge of the truth. - Austin O’Malley

The sublime delight of truthful speech to one who has the great gift of uttering it, will make itself felt even through the pangs of sorrow. - George Eliot

The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple. - Rebecca West

The truth always turns out to be simpler than you thought. - Richard P. Feynman

Life is ...

Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes. - Lewis Grizzard

Life is like an elevator: on your way up, sometimes, you have to stop and let some people off. - Unknown

Life is much less a competitive struggle for survival than a triumph of cooperation and creativity. - Fritjof Capra

Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose. - Viktor Frankl

Life is so simple when you're just doing your job. - Jeanette Winterson

Life IS the gift you were given, so stop waiting around for your dues. Use it wisely and you’ll gift yourself abundantly. - Michelle Geaney

Life is the greatest bargain; we get it for nothing. - Yiddish Proverb

Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervour. - Benjamin Disraeli

Life is too short to waste. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is too short to worry about anything. You had better enjoy it because the next day promises nothing. - Eric Davis

Life is a battle of wits, and many people have to fight it unarmed. - Evan Esar

Life is a constant oscillation between the sharp horns of dilemmas. - Henry Louis Mencken

More on Life Here, and the book The Mystery of Life - a collection of quotes on and pertaining to life.

The Paradox of Deception

I came across this article on lies/deception in my scrap book. Thought I would share it here.

Never mind who is telling lies. The real question is, why are people deceived so easily?

From the half-truths that proliferate in the market-place to the deceits of a lover, from the white lies of everyday life to the denials of the nation’s leaders, deception is pervasive in daily interactions – and, usually, it succeeds.

“We are sort of like Diogenes looking for that one honest person out there, and in looking for that one honest person, we are more likely to be duped,” says Mr. Chris Wetzel, professor of psychology at Rhodes College in Memphis.

He had been analysing a fundamental paradox of these dishonest times: How come people so often see deception coming and still get blindsided by it?

The answer, he and other psychologists who study deceit say, is that suckers are born every minute. In fact, one’s mental health and the social fabric of society practically depend on it.

“We are predisposed to believe.” Says Prof. Wetzel, adding that, except for the most cynical or paranoid people, people live by what is called “the truth bias”. People generally want to believe something is true.

While that proves day after day to be a shaky assumption, it is nonetheless a prerequisite to comprehending what someone is saying.

Most people “don’t have the energy or time to go to the next level of comprehension and question something’s validity,” says Prof. Wetzel. “The busier we are, the less likely we’ll do it.”

To assume what people are telling is true also goes a long way towards not upsetting the apple cart of social interaction. To assume the opposite creates chaos.

Brad Blandford believes people are incapable of knowing when others are lying unless they themselves are totally honest.

“We’ll buy anything. Lying is of epidemic proportions,” he says, blaming it for much of the anxiety, depression and psychosomatic illnesses so prevalent in society today. “So, it turns out that everyone is just guessing about everyone else.”

In many ways, the dynamic of telling and believing lies is what makes truth more of a stranger than fiction, as Mart Twain put it.

Accepting even suspect lies turns out to be the path of least resistance many people choose to follow. Confronting a suspected lie can make a scene, and a lot of people aren’t willing to go through that trouble. Once we believe we’re being fed a line, it is more difficult and socially awkward to call someone on a lie than to let it go or give them the benefit of the doubt.

Further complicating matters is the element of unconscious collusion – when the deceived prefers the lie to the truth.

Psychologist Bella DePaulo found that about a quarter of lies told to those who are close are “altruistic lies” – the no-you-don’t-look-fat kind of fibs supposedly contrived for the person’s own good. They are lying to spare someone else’s feelings.

And there are even the more serious lies, she says. “Take, for example, an affair. You don’t know for sure if it is happening, and you wish it is not happening. And if you see through the lie to the truth that is being hidden, it can be a disaster.”

Besides, people simply are not good at detecting lies. Despite studies trying to identify the tell-tale behaviours that accompany a lie, “there is no perfectly reliable sign of lying, no Pinocchio’s nose”, says Ms DePaulo.

Part of that is because different people tell lies differently. And the very behaviours and attributes that make someone seem to be believable are also what she has found common among those who tell the most lies.

“If you feel really sure someone is lying,” warns Ms DePaulo, “it is just likely they are telling the truth.”

Mind - Quotes

The only prison we need to escape from is the prison of our own minds. - Unknown

The pain of the mind is worse than the pain of the body. - Unknown

The primary sign of a well-ordered mind is a man’s ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company. - Seneca

The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind. - Friedrich Nietzsche

The speed of the human mind is remarkable. So is its inability to face the obvious. - Simon Mawer

The subconscious mind is a mental fireless cooker where ideas simmer and develop. - Unknown

The treacherous, unexplored areas of the world are not in continents or seas; they are in the minds and hearts of men. - Unknown

The wise may find in trifles light as atoms in the air, some useful lesson to enrich the mind. - John Godfrey Saxe

The monsters of the mind are far worse than those that actually exist. Fear, doubt, and hate have hamstrung more people than beasts ever have. - Christopher Paolini

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude. - Aldous Huxley

There are materials enough in every man's mind to make a hell there. - Henry Ward Beecher

There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet. - Eric Hoffer

There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge. - Napoleon Hill

There are so many powers within the mind of man that have yet to be tapped, that thinking of its possible limitations may be considered a joke. - Unknown

There are quiet places also in the mind.... But we build bandstand and factories on them. Deliberately – to put a stop to the quietness. - Aldous Huxley

There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there. - Albert Einstein

This mind of ours, like the earth beneath our feet, teems with exhaustless riches. The conditions of development only are needed. - Christian Nestell Bovee

Those who exert the first influence upon the mind, have the greatest power. - Horace Mann

Life - Quotes

Life is a combination of adjustments and compromises. You adjust when someone wants to be with you and compromise when you want to be with someone. - Unknown

Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel. - Jean Racine

Life is a constant process of dying. - Arthur Schopenhauer

Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more. - Jeannette Walls

Life is a flash of lightning in the dark of night. It is a brief time of tremendous potential. - B. Alan Wallace

Life is a flower of which love is the honey. - Victor Hugo

Life is a whim of several billion cells to be you for a while. - Unknown

Life is as easy or as hard as you think it is. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life is full of surprises, so you may as well get used to it. - Susan Meddaugh

Life is indeed more agreeable by alternate occupation and leisure. - Demophilus

Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up. - Hans Christian Andersen

Life is like a cup of tea. It’s all in how you make it. - Unknown

More on Life Here, and the book The Mystery of Life - a collection of quotes on and pertaining to life.

Proverbs, Aphorisms, Axioms, Maxims...

You have a lifetime to work, but children are only young once. - Polish Proverb

Dead men tell no tales. - J. Wilson

Don’t spill the beans. - Unknown

Better a live dog than a dead lion. - Paul Hoffman

Cold hands, warm heart. - V.S. Lean

Always be prepared. - Unknown

Keep your chin up. - Unknown

One swallow does not make a summer. - Ursula K. Le Guin

Pick your poison. - Unknown

The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives. - Chinese Proverb

Grin and bear it. - Unknown

Eventually, everything goes away. - Elizabeth Gilbert

All in good time. - Horace

No matter how long the Winter, Spring is sure to follow. - Proverb

To each his own. - Cicero

When you throw dirt, you lose ground. - Mexican Proverb

Seize the day. - Unknown

You win some, you lose some. - American Proverb

Two heads are better than one. - Polish Proverb

Save for a rainy day. - Aesop

Easy does it. - T. Taylor

Love - Quotes

The source of love is deep in us and we can help others realize a lot of happiness. One word, one action, one thought can reduce another person’s suffering and bring that person joy. - Thich Nhat Hanh

He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

How strange too, and unfamiliar to think that one had been loved, that one's presence had once had the power to make a difference between happiness and dullness in another's day. - Graham Greene

When we are mindful, deeply in touch with the present moment, our understanding of what is going on deepens, and we begin to be filled with acceptance, joy, peace and love. - Thich Nhat Hanh

It’s one thing to fall in love. It’s another to feel someone else fall in love with you, and to feel a responsibility toward that love. - David Levithan

Love can’t mature in one room. It has to come out of the full sharing of everything: joys, aspirations, downfalls, all of it. That’s the only real path to love. - Leon Uris

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love. - Kahlil Gibran

Love is an unconditional commitment to an imperfect person. To love somebody isn’t just a strong feeling. It is a decision, a judgment and a promise. - Unknown

Love is forgiving time and time again, sometimes against better judgement. Love is what can drive us to do things we would never once consider. - Unknown

Love is like an ice cube, the harder you hold on to it, the faster it will disappear, and all you’ll have in your hand will be tears of crushed love. - Unknown

More on Love Here, and the book The Light of Love

Life - Quotes

The whole of life, from the moment you were born till the moment you die is a process of learning. - Krishnamurti

I think the key to life is just being a happy person, and happiness will bring you success. - Diego Val

A satisfied life is better than a successful life because our success is measured by others, but our satisfaction is measured by our own soul mind and heart. - Unknown

Sometimes life is about your dreams, hopes, and visions for the future. But sometimes it is just about putting one foot in front of the other. And that’s okay. - Unknown

You will never fully grasp the depth of life’s richness. For the more of it your experience, the more of it there is. - Ralph Marston

Life becomes more meaningful when you realize the simple fact that you’ll never get the same moment twice. - Unknown

Life is like the ocean. It can be calm or still, and rough or rigid, but in the end, it is always beautiful. - Unknown

No one can build the bridge, over which you must cross the river of life, except you. - Friedrich Nietzsche

Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs. - Charlotte Bronte

Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle. - Paulo Coelho

More on Life Here, and the book The Mystery of Life - a collection of quotes on and pertaining to life.

Quote Worthy

The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience, and those who are experienced have feeble imaginations. - Alfred North Whitehead

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing. - Salvador Dali

Insincerity is always weakness; sincerity even in error is strength. - George Henry Lewes

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink. - George Orwell

A long disease seems to be a halting place between life and death, that death itself may be a comfort to those who die and to those who are left behind. - Jean de la Bruyere

There is a strange kind of tragic enigma associated with the problem of racism. No one, or almost no one, wishes to see themselves as racist; still racism persists, real and tenacious. - Albert Memmi

Never look down on anyone unless you are admiring their shoes. - Unknown

All serious daring starts from within. - Eudora Welty

Do not forget small kindnesses and do not remember small faults. - Chinese Proverbs

No man ever yet became great by imitation. - Samuel Johnson

Every perspective has limitations – something to keep in mind whenever we believe our own viewpoint to be the only rue and valid one. - Unknown

Live every moment, laugh ever day, love beyond words. - Unknown

More Quotes Here - And the book Quote Worthy

Truth - Quotes

Some people think that the truth can be hidden with a little cover-up and decoration. But as time goes by, what is true is revealed, and what is fake fades away. - Ismail Haniyeh

Some sorts of truth are truer than others. - Jack London

Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes. - Unknown

Spurn not at seeming error, but dig below its surface for the truth; and beware of seeming truths that grow on the roots of error. - Martin Farquhar Tupper

Still another condition of knowing the truth is, I think, the willingness to make some sacrifice for it. - Samuel Longfellow

Stronger than steel is the sword of the Spirit; swifter than arrows, the light of the truth. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Tell the truth, or someone will tell it for you. - Edgar Watson Howe

Telling the truth is a beautiful act even if the truth itself is ugly. - Glen Duncan

Telling the truth is like taking herbs in lieu of drugs. It does not taste well or cure fast, but it works better in the long term and gives fewer side effects to the patient. - Unknown

The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it seems to me the deepest root of all evil that is in the world. - Max Born

The best way to deceive a knave is to tell him the truth. - Ivan Panin

The colour of truth is grey. - Andre Gide

The dissection of the false will never reveal Truth. - Unknown

The dwelling place of truth is in the inner man. And if you discover your own nature as subject to change, then go beyond that nature. Press on toward the source from which the light of reason itself is kindled. - Unknown

The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths. - William James

The greatest truths are the simplest. - Eliza Cook

Life - Quotes

Life ... is not about how fast you run or even with what degree of grace. It's about perseverance, about staying on your feet and slogging forward no matter what. - Dean Koontz

A hungry stomach, an empty pocket and a broken heart can teach you the best lesson of life. - Unknown

You don’t always need a logical reason for doing everything in your life. Do it because you want to; because it’s fun’ because it makes you happy. - Unknown

Living in favourable and unfavourable situation is call ‘part of life’, but smiling in all those situations is called ‘art of living’. - Unknown

Life moves forward. The old leaves wither, die and fall away, and the new growth extends forward into the light. - Bryant McGill

Life without endeavour is like entering a jewel mine and coming out with empty hands. - Japanese Proverb

No matter how skilfully a man plays the game of life, there is but one test of his ability – did he win? - Charles James Lever

No one gets out of the game of life alive. You either die in the bleachers, or on the field. So, you might as well play out on the field, and go for it. - Les Brown

If life can remove someone you never dream of losing, it can replace them with someone you never dreamt of having. - Unknown

People have different reasons for the way they live their lives. You cannot put everyone’s reasons in the same box. - Kevin Spacey

More on Life Here, and the book The Mystery of Life - a collection of quotes on and pertaining to life.

You - Quotes

You are part of a puzzle in someone's life. You may never know where you fit. But, someone's life may never be complete without you in it. - Bonnie Arbor

You might think you don’t matter in this world. But because of you someone has a favourite mug to drink their tea out of each morning that you bought them. Someone hears a song on the radio and it reminds them of you. Someone has read a book you recommended to them and got lost in its pages. Someone has remembered a joke you told them and smiled to themselves on the bus. Someone has tried on a top and felt beautiful because you complimented them on it. Someone now likes themselves that little bit more because you made a passing comment that made them feel good. Never think you don’t have an impact. Your fingerprints can’t be wiped away from the little marks of kindness that you’ve left behind. - Unknown

You can be the most beautiful person in the world and everybody sees light and rainbows when they look at you, but if you yourself don’t know it, all of that doesn’t even matter. Every second that you spend on doubting your worth, every moment that you use to criticize yourself; is a second of your life wasted, is a moment of your life thrown away. It’s not like you have forever, so don’t waste any of your seconds, don’t throw even one of your moments away. - C. JoyBell C.

For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again. - Eric Roth

Humour

The Mind - Quotes

The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. - Thomas Huxley

The empires of the future are empires of the mind. - Winston Churchill

The energy of the mind is the essence of life. - Aristotle

The force of mind is only as great as its expression; its depth only as deep as its power to expand and lose itself. - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water. - Sigmund Freud

The mind is more vulnerable than the stomach, because it can be poisoned without feeling immediate pain. - Unknown

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled. - Plutarch

The mind is nothing less than a garden of inestimable value which man should strive to cultivate. - William Scott Downey

The mind is the attribute of man. When man is born, he comes into existence with only one weapon with him – the reasoning mind. - Ayn Rand

The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it – as long as you really believe 100 percent. - Arnold Schwarzenegger

The mind is the pilot. We think of things before the body does them. - Walt Disney

The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included. - Bodhidharma

The mind is unstable and flighty. It wanders wherever it desires. Therefore it is good to control the mind.  A disciplined mind brings happiness. - Buddha

The mind of man is like a clock that is always running down, and requires to be constantly wound up. - William Hazlit

The mind of man is like an unbroken horse that would go anywhere except where you wanted it to. - Unknown

The mind should be allowed some relaxation, that it may return to its work all the better for the rest. - Seneca

The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark - Thomas Paine

The mind ought to sometimes be diverted that it may return the better to thinking. - Phaedrus

Life - Quotes

In the Game of Life, sometimes people kick us as if we are football; but they don’t know that they themselves are sending us near the Goal. - Unknown

Let your life yield a sweet, winsome melody that this old world needs so desperately. Yes, you can if you will. - Charles R. Swindoll

If you have a complex life, make it simple; if you have a simple life, continue it that way! - Mehmet Murat Ildan

It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it’s called Life. - Terry Pratchett

Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation. - C. Everett Koop

Life doesn’t allow for us to go back and fix what we have done wrong in the past, but it does allow for us to live each day better than our last. - Unknown

Life lived amidst tension and busyness needs leisure. Leisure that recreates and renews. Leisure should be a time to think new thoughts, not ponder old ills. - C. Neil Strait

Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later the man who wins is the man who thinks he can. - Vince Lombardi

Life's greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve. - Anthony Robbins

Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you. - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

More on Life Here, and the book The Mystery of Life - a collection of quotes on and pertaining to life.