Truth

"The truth is, it's really only okay to be yourself if that self is within an accepted range of 'normal'."

"For every good reason there is to lie, there is a better reason to tell the truth"

"When someone you love makes compassion, kindness, forgiveness, respect and God an option, you can be sure they have made you an option, as well."

"When you start putting pen to paper, you see a side of your personal truth that doesn't otherwise reveal itself in conversation or thought."

"But memory is like plaster: peel it back and you just might find a completely different picture."

"One swallows the lie that flatters, but sips the bitter truth drop by drop."

"It is debatable whether blind faith is truly faith at all. Faith is the perceptive gray area where scientific facts meet an individual's experiential truths - the extreme of the former is left feeling in the dark whereas the latter is caught blinded by the light. By proper scientific method, it is intellectually dishonest for me to declare the existence of God with utmost certainty, but to my individual spirit, I would be intellectually dishonest to deny the existence of God even for a second. This leaves the best of both worlds, as the believer is called to be able to give reasons for his faith, a deviation from mere fantasy."

"I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something."

"All idealisation makes life poorer. To beautify it is to take away its character of complexity — it is to destroy it."

"...we are singing today of the WIPE-OUT GANG - the WIPE-OUT GANG buys, owns & operates the Insanity Factory - if you do not know where the Insanity Factory is located, you should hereby take two steps to the right, paint your teeth & go to sleep..."

"The Buddha taught complete honesty, with the extra instruction that everything a person says should be truthful and helpful."

"confront your greatest fearsvoice your biggest problemsacknowledge your tiniest issuesthe longer you stay silentthe louder they becomethey won't disappear if you ignore themthey will spread and affect all aspects of your life"

"It is as if Little Red Riding Hood had asked the wolf: "Dear Grandmother, what is the truth for" And the wolf had replied: "The truth helps me tell you better lies."

"A professionally trained actress should be a better liar, wouldn't you think? But no. I am pathetically underachieved in that area. I can think of a great lie. I'm plenty imaginative. But before the words are even out of my mouth, there's a weird tickle of unease in my armpits, a horsefly of guilt lands on the back of my neck, and before I can stop myself, that gassy little bubble of truth belches out."

"Something went klunk. Like a nickel dropping in a soda machine. One of those small insights that explains everything. This was puberty for these boys. Adolescence. The first date, the first kiss, the first chance to hold hands with someone special. Delayed, postponed, a decade's worth of longing--while everybody around you celebrates life, you pretend, suppress, inhibit, deprive yourself of you own joy--but finally ultimately, eventually, you find a place where you can have a taste of everything denied."

"Smartass Disciple: If you are really a master, then make me see miracles!Master of Stupidity: Go to sleep and dream, then wake up thirty years later!"

"Simple the life, simpler will be your instincts, the laws that govern universe will obey your simplicity."

"Out of this nettle - danger - we pluck this flower - safety."

"The truth, my friend, is an awesome thing, to be handled with wisdom and with courage denied to ordinary people. Most of us must make do with illusions. Or else -- or else we could not endure."

"Man kann davon überzeugt sein, sich etwas zu wünschen - vielleicht jahrelang - solang man weiß, dass der Wunsch unerfüllbar ist. Steht man aber plötzlich vor der Möglichkeit, dass der Wunschtraum Wirklichkeit wird, dann wünscht man sich nur noch eins: Man hätte es sich nie gewünscht."