„The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.“
— Aleksandr Pushkin Russian poet 1799 - 1837
The Hero ll. 64-65, quoted in Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov
„A deception that elevates us is dearer than a host of low truths.“
Тьмы низких истин нам дороже нас возвышающий обман.
Pushkin and Pugachev (1937).
Originál
Тьмы низких истин нам дороже нас возвышающий обман.
Poslední aktualizace 22. května 2020. Historie
Marina Ivanovna Cvetajev7
ruská spisovatelka 1892 - 1941Podobné citáty
„Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.“
— Aristotle Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy -384 - -321 př. n. l.
A similar statement was attributed to Aristotle in antiquityː ""Φίλος μὲν Σωκράτης, ἀλλὰ φιλτέρα ἀλήθεια."" [""Socrates is a friend, but truth is a greater.""] — Ammonius Hermiae, Life of Aristotle (as translated in Dictionary of Quotations http://archive.org/details/dictionaryquota02harbgoog (1906) by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 527). The variant mentioned above may possibly be derived from a reduction of a statement known to have been made by Isaac Newton, who at the head of notes he titled Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae (Certain Philosophical Questions) wrote in Latin: ""Amicus Plato— amicus Aristoteles— magis amica veritas"" which translates to: ""Plato is my friend— Aristotle is my friend— but my greatest friend is truth."" (c. 1664)
Another possible origin of the ""dear is Plato"" statement is in the Nicomachean Ethics; the Ross translation (of 1096a.11–1096a.16) provides: ""We had perhaps better consider the universal good and discuss thoroughly what is meant by it, although such an inquiry is made an uphill one by the fact that the Forms have been introduced by friends of our own. Yet it would perhaps be thought to be better, indeed to be our duty, for the sake of maintaining the truth even to destroy what touches us closely, especially as we are philosophers; for, while both are dear, piety requires us to honour truth above our friends.""
Note that the last clause, when quoted by itself loses the connection to ""the friends"" who introduced ""the Forms"", Plato above all. Therefore the misattribution could be the result of the ""quote"" actually being a paraphrase which identifies Plato where Aristotle only alludes to him circumspectly.
According to the notes in Plato: Republic Book X, edited by John Ferguson, p. 71, «the familiar 'amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas' is found in Cervantes' Don Quixote II 8 and cannot be traced further back. Cf. Roger Bacon Op. mai. I vii, '<i>amicus est Socrates, magister meus, sed magis est amica veritas</i>'. For the opposite view, see Cicero, T.D. I 17,39, '<i>errare mehercule malo cum Platone . . . quam cum istis vera sentire</i>'.»
Disputed
Originál: (la) Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas.
Varianta: Plato is my friend, but the truth is more my friend.
„Is Error, though unwittingly supported by a host of good men, stronger than Truth? Are Right and Wrong convertible terms, dependant upon popular opinion?“
— William Lloyd Garrison American journalist 1805 - 1879
Introductory Remarks
Thoughts on African Colonization (1832)
Kontext: Is Error, though unwittingly supported by a host of good men, stronger than Truth? Are Right and Wrong convertible terms, dependant upon popular opinion? Oh no! Then I will go forward in the strength of the Lord of Hosts — in the name of Truth — and under the banner of Right. As it is not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of God, that great moral changes are effected, I am encouraged to fight valiantly in this good cause, believing that I shall "come off conqueror, and more than conqueror" — yet not I, but Truth and Justice. It is in such a contest that one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight.
„This is a wintry world. Low temperatures prevail in the hearts of men. Altruism is scarce. Gaunt but blessed hands stretch up to us everywhere for bread. They are the holy hands of Truth.“
— J. Howard Moore 1862 - 1916
Zdroj: Ethics and Education (1912), The World to Be, p. 150
„Wisdom and truth, the offspring of the sky, are immortal; while cunning and deception, the meteors of the earth, after glittering for a moment, must pass away.“
— Robert Hall British Baptist pastor 1764 - 1831
Zdroj: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 241.
„Truth to tell, treaties are only oaths of deception and faithlessness. The jurisprudence of sovereigns is customarily the law of the strongest.“
— Frederick II of Prussia king of Prussia 1712 - 1786
Preface to “Histoire de mon temps”, Works (1743), quoted in W. W. Coole (ed.), Thus Spake Germany (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1941), p. 82
„Lower a bucket into a well of self-deception, and what comes up must be immortal truth, mustn't it?“
— Charles Reade, kniha The Cloister and the Hearth
Zdroj: The Cloister and the Hearth (1861), CHAPTER V
„If we seek… nature, then love can be informed by truth instead of being based on ignorance or self-deception.“
— Carl Sagan American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator 1934 - 1996
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (2006)
„Everyone admits that "the truth hurts" but no one applies this adage to himself — and as soon as it begins to hurt us, we quickly repudiate it and call it a lie. It is this tendency toward self-deception (more than any active sin) that makes human progress slow and almost imperceptible.“
— Sydney J. Harris American journalist 1917 - 1986
On the Contrary (1964)
„A harmful truth is better than a useful lie.“
— Thomas Mann, kniha The Magic Mountain
Zdroj: The Magic Mountain
„A lie is more comfortable than doubt, more useful than love, more lasting than truth.“
— Gabriel García Márquez Colombian writer 1927 - 2014
[The Autumn of the Patriarch, 2006 [1976], HarperCollins, 978-0-06-088286-0, 254] translated from El Ontoño del Patriarica (1975) by Gregory Rabassa
„Getting rid of a delusion makes us wiser than getting hold of a truth.“
— Ludwig Börne German writer 1786 - 1837
Varianta: Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.
„First, what does truth require? It requires us to face the facts as they are, not to involve ourselves in self-deception; to refuse to think merely in slogans. If we are to work for the future of the city, let us deal with the realities as they actually are, not as they might have been, and not as we wish they were.“
— John F. Kennedy 35th president of the United States of America 1917 - 1963
1963, Address at the Free University of Berlin
„He who, when called upon to speak a disagreeable truth, tells it boldly and has done is both bolder and milder than he who nibbles in a low voice and never ceases nibbling.“
— Johann Kaspar Lavater Swiss poet 1741 - 1801
No. 302
Aphorisms on Man (c. 1788)
„We are born to inquire after truth; it belongs to a greater power to possess it. It is not, as Democritus said, hid in the bottom of the deeps, but rather elevated to an infinite height in the divine knowledge.“
— Michel De Montaigne, kniha Essays
Book III, Ch. 8. Of the Art of Conversation
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
„A truth emerges in any long marriage, and the truth is this: Our spouses sometimes know us better than we even know ourselves.“
— Nicholas Sparks American writer and novelist 1965
Ira Levinson, Chapter 28, p. 325
2009, The Longest Ride (2013)
„Truth is … one approach to the attainment of the good, but in and of itself, it is neither the good nor the beautiful … Socrates, Pascal, and others regarded knowledge of the truth with regard to purposeless objects as incongruous with the good … [by] exposing deception, truth destroys illusion, which is the principle attribute of beauty.“
— Leo Tolstoy Russian writer 1828 - 1910
What is Art? (1897)