Truth

"Our kindness may be the most persuasive argument for that which we believe."

"I shouldn't believe anything I say, if I were you-and that includes what I just told you."

"I have no name," she purred. "I'm whoever the keepers of my fate tell me to be."

"The truth is the kindest thing we can give folks in the end."

"Over time, hidden truths morph in the dark soil of deceit into something much worse."

"Sex is mathematics. Individuality no longer an issue. What does intelligence signify? Define reason. Desire - meaningless. Intellect is not a cure. Justice is dead."

"The Universe doesn't like secrets. It conspires to reveal the truth, to lead you to it."

"But love is much like a dam: if you allow a tiny crack to form through whichonly a trickle of water can pass, that trickle will quickly bring down the whole structure, and soon no one will be able to control the force of the current. For when those walls come down, then love takes over, and it no longer matters what is possible or impossible; it doesn't even matter whether we can keep the loved one at our side. To love is to lose control."

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."

"Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain."

"Since then your sere Majesty and your Lordships seek a simple answer, I will give it in this manner, neither horned nor toothed. Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.", April 18, 1521)"

"Why did adults have to be so thick? They always say “tell the truth,” and when you do, they don’t believe you. What’s the point?"

"Those who wish to seek out the cause of miracles and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not to stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical and impious, and proclaimed as such by those whom the mob adores as the interpreters of nature and the gods. For these men know that, once ignorance is put aside, that wonderment would be taken away, which is the only means by which their authority is preserved."

"My son, do not forget my teaching,But let your heart keep my commandments;For length of days and years of life And peace they will add to you. Do not let kindness and truth leave you;Bind them around your neck,Write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute In the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him,And He will make your paths straight."

"The ORDINARY RESPONSE TO ATROCITIES is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable. Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. Equally as powerful as the desire to deny atrocities is the conviction that denial does not work. Folk wisdom is filled with ghosts who refuse to rest in their graves until their stories are told. Murder will out. Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites both for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of individual victims. The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma. People who have survived atrocities often tell their stories in a highly emotional, contradictory, and fragmented manner that undermines their credibility and thereby serves the twin imperatives of truth-telling and secrecy. When the truth is finally recognized, survivors can begin their recovery. But far too often secrecy prevails, and the story of the traumatic event surfaces not as a verbal narrative but as a symptom. The psychological distress symptoms of traumatized people simultaneously call attention to the existence of an unspeakable secret and deflect attention from it. This is most apparent in the way traumatized people alternate between feeling numb and reliving the event. The dialectic of trauma gives rise to complicated, sometimes uncanny alterations of consciousness, which George Orwell, one of the committed truth-tellers of our century, called "doublethink," and which mental health professionals, searching for calm, precise language, call "dissociation." It results in protean, dramatic, and often bizarre symptoms of hysteria which Freud recognized a century ago as disguised communications about sexual abuse in childhood. . . ."

"No matter what you do, someone always knew you would."

"People always say life is too short for regrets. But the truth is, it's too long."

"The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success."

"To hate others is ugly. To hate yourself is uglier."

"Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth."