Tao Te Ching
Truth
Books, philosophies, religious teachings, 'truth,' and various 'words of wisdom' are like herbs, the pharmacology of medicine, like medical prescriptions. And like medicines, their value is always very contextual: the most beneficial and healing drug in one situation can be a poison in another. A doctor's skill is normally not related to inventing something new but in applying something from the past to the present, knowledge of an herb's effects to an individual's in-the-moment malady. Words are similar. They're not beneficial or harmful in themselves, it all depends on the context. The role of authentic teachers is pulling from the vast storehouse of ancient and modern wisdom and applying the insight to a contemporary situation or problem. This is only possible when that teacher understands the sense and not just the words.
Quotes (147)
“No human being will ever know the Truth, for even if they happen to say it by chance, they would not even known they had done so.”
“Three things can not hide for long: the Moon, the Sun and the Truth.”
“Truth cannot be cut up into pieces and arranged into a system. Words are only a figure of speech.”
“Learn the unshaken heart of persuasive truth. Don’t believe status quo opinions in which there is no truth at all.”
“Because of the weakness of our senses, we can't judge the truth. What appears is a vision of the unseen... in everything there is a portion of everything.”
“Use oneness [truthfulness] to put the 3 universal world virtues—wisdom, goodness, and courage—into practice.”
“This may be true, bit is also very likely to be untrue; and therefore, I would not have you be too easily persuaded... Reflect well”
“What we have in us of the image of God is the love of truth and justice.”
“Abandon your plan… respond to the demands of inner truth… and war will end by itself!”
“People usually look at things from their personal point of view and therefore miss the truth.”
“You can win over a greedy person by offering money, a proud person by cowering, a foolish one by agreeing with him; but you can only win over the wise with truth.”
“Traditions and customs are set by people. Therefore what people regard as 'truth' tends to be a subjective matter.”
“Fools admire and love falsely claimed truths that only sweetly stroke the ears.”
“The ordinary, isolated intellect, no matter how brilliant or inspired, has not the energy to command our thoughts, words, impulses, memories and experiences in a way that conforms to truth and the Good.”
“Everything in the world may be imitated except truth, because truth that is imitated is no longer the truth.”
“Like the lotus flower that grows out of muddy water but stays untouched by mud, engage in life without cherishing envy or hatred; live in the world not a life of self but a life of truth.”
“All things are interwoven, a sacred bond uniting them into the oneness of truth.”
“The truth is hidden from us. Even if a mere piece of luck brings us straight to it, we shall have no grounded conviction of our success; there are so many similar objects, all claiming to be the real thing.
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“There is nothing true anywhere, the True is nowhere to be found… When the True is left to itself, there is nothing false in it for it is Mind itself.”
“Aren't you ashamed to care so much to make all the money you can, and to advance your reputation and prestige—while for truth and wisdom and the improvement of your soul you have no care or worry?”
“the first key to wisdom is assiduous and frequent questioning… for by doubting we come to inquiry, and by inquiring we arrive at truth”
“From the beginning, truth is clear. One who is not attached to 'form' need not be 'reformed'.
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“Truth is a matter that can withstand mockery, this is freshened by any ironic gesture directed at it. Whatever cannot withstand satire is false.”
“If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?”
“Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep the truth and let God go.”
“Though you have talent, do not trust in it. Confucius himself was unsuited to his times... Do not trust in promises. Truth is rare.”
“Our knowledge is molded and limited by our means and ways of perceiving things; it is locked up in the prison of our minds and it must not pretend to be the objective or ultimate truth about anything.”
“Buddha Nature, the Self of all beings, is the simple Truth. From Buddhas to insects, it is the seer, hearer, and mover.”
“The truth of things is a supreme food for fine intelligences, but not for wandering wits.”
“Make men understand that to tell you the truth does not offend you... Those who do otherwise are either overthrown by flatterers, or so often changed by varying opinions that they fall into contempt.”
“History is a sacred kind of writing, because truth is essential to it, and where truth is, there God himself is, so far as truth is concerned.”
“Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
“Human knowledge is a mere ill-digested mass made up of credulity, accident, and childish notions.”
“Think with the few and speak with the many… Truth is for the few, error is both common and vulgar… The wise person therefore retires into silence and if he allows himself to come out of it he does so in the shade and before few and fit persons.”
“Once your soul has been enlarged by a truth, it can never return to its original size.”
“Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.”
“When I was a child, everyone praised my archery except for one old teacher; he said I was not good, and it was because of him, the critical one, that I now shoot and ride so well.”
“Getting out of danger requires that one believe it is dangerous – belief rules the mind… If there is truthfulness, then the mind develops.”
“It is much easier to recognize error than to find truth; error is superficial and may be corrected; truth lies hidden in the depths.”
“In all ten directions of the universe, there is only one truth. When we see clearly, the great teachings are the same.”
“Death conceals everything but truth, and strips a man of everything but genius and virtue. It’s a sort of natural canonization.”
“It is only our own basic thoughts that possess truth and life… other people’s thoughts are like crumbs form another’s table, the cast-off clothes of an unfamiliar guest.”
“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
“No words suffice the secret soul to show,
For truth denies all eloquence to woe.”
“A poem is the very image of life expressed in its eternal truth, at once the center and circumference of knowledge. Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted... it awakens and enlarges the mind lifting the veil from the hidden beauty of the world.”
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
“Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.”
“Men will not accept truth at the hands of their enemies, and truth is seldom offered to them by their friends”
“Any, even unintentional, deviation from truth... keeps back civilization, virtue, everything on which human happiness on the largest scale depends.”
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
“vain to popularize profundities, and all truth is profound”
“Every new truth which has ever been propounded has, for a time caused mischief, produced discomfort, and often unhappiness; sometimes disturbing social and religious arrangements... the face of society is disturbed, or perhaps convulsed.”
“The great enemy of knowledge is not error… One error conflicts with another, each destroys its opponent, and truth is evolved.”
“Error runs down an inclined plane, while Truth has to laboriously climb its way up hill.”
“When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.”
“Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it... Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.”
“Truth consists not in never lying but in knowing when to lie and when not to do so... Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well... The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.”
“One must be very particular about telling the truth. Through truth one can realize God.”
“True ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate, and verify. False ideas are those that we cannot.”
“People don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.”
“Anarchism is the usher of science — the master of ceremonies to all forms of truth. It would remove all barriers between the human being and natural development.”
“Let us seek truth everywhere; let us scatter it to the winds of heaven where it will blow, find new ground, and germinate in this wide universe of souls.”
“Of all evils of war the greatest is the purely spiritual evil: the hatred, the injustice, the repudiation of truth, the artificial conflict.”
“Averroes is more important in Christian than in Mohammedan philosophy. In the latter he was a dead end; in the former, a beginning… [he] regarded religion as containing philosophic truth in allegorical form.”
“Words that oscillate between nonsense and supreme meaning are the oldest and truest.”
“When truth has no burning, then it is philosophy, when it gets burning from the heart, it becomes poetry.”
“Those who tell of two ways and praise one are recognized as prophets or great teachers. They save men from confusion and hard choices. They offer… simple schemes, but truth is not so simple.”
“Like the goal of art is the search for beauty, the goal of religion is the search for God and truth.”
“Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
“Man at his best loves the pick of words that tell the truth, the fair profit of able dealings.”
“It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes makes its way to the surface.”
“Is there anything truer than truth? Yes, legend. This gives eternal meaning to ephemeral truth.”
“Truth is seldom simple; often it has a right and a left hand, and moves on two feet.”
“What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over the rim of every cup.”
“Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.”
“Only one thing is right, and that is the Truth, but nobody knows what it is. It is a thing that changes all the time, and then comes back to the same thing.”
“Truth is a pathless land, not a ready-made object that can be give to you by a religion or a guru. It has to be discovered.”
“The naked truth, terrifying to behold, is not to be covered with robes of self-deception. This is the first vow of the scholar. Please keep it though it costs you your life.”
“Truth needs no label: it is neither Buddhist, Christian, Hindu nor Moslem. It is not the monopoly of anybody. Sectarian labels are a hindrance to the independent understanding of Truth, and they produce harmful prejudices in men's minds.”
“When you see a garden of flowers, remember naturally free life in harmony with Truth.”
“When you see a garden of flowers, remember naturally free life in harmony with Truth.”
“Everybody says that, especially my father. It's partly true, too, but it isn't all true... People never notice anything.”
“Poetry is a special use of language that opens onto the real. The business of the poet is truth telling, which is why in the Celtic tradition no one could be a teacher unless he or she was a poet.”
“Truth is like a bird
Flying silently
In the silken sky
To a hidden tree
In the cottonmouth
night—”
“When one experiences truth, the madness of finding fault with others disappears.”
“Followers who tell the truth, and leaders who listen to it, are an unbeatable combination.”
“I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”
“I don'think there is any truth. There are only points of view.”
“If you want to get the plain truth, be not concerned with right and wrong.”
“The truth knocks on the door and you say, ‘Go away, I'm looking for the truth,’ and so it goes away.”
“Oh, how short-sighted you who dismiss the philosophy or sage
Because of one small disagreement.
Don’t you know that every whole is flawed
And also full of truth?
Much more suspect
Believing all of anything is true.”
“The more people believe something, the less likely it’s true but the more likely people will believe it’s true.”
“There is no truth to seek or to confirm logically; rather what one needs to do is to discover just how much the mind continually limits itself in a condition of dualism.”
“you don’t spell out the truth, you imply the truth with wakeful delight… When you spell out the truth it loses its essence and becomes either ‘my’ truth or ‘your’ truth… By implying the truth, the truth doesn’t become anyone’s property.”
“When we look at things as they are on a very simple and ordinary level, we find that they are fantastically , obviously true, frighteningly true… There is a kind of courtship, a love affair between the obviousness and you perceiving it.”
“May you always know the truth and see the lights surrounding you…Forever young, forever young, May you stay forever young.”
“If words are of any use at all, they are the words of the poet. For poetry has the ability to point us toward the truth, then stand aside.”
“The truth may be hard to find, but it is out there—somewhere. If we do not continue the work, the truth remains hidden. If we stop the search, then the censor has defeated us.”
“Can anything be completely correct, or completely incorrect? We live in a world where rain might fall 30% or 70% of the time. Truth is probably no different. There could be 30% or 70% truth.”
“In fact, one big lesson from Buddhism is to be suspicious of the intuition that your ordinary way of perceiving the world brings you the truth about it.”
“sometimes the truth is so harsh that when people hear it spoken, it sounds like abuse... everyone is so easy to offend nowadays that no one is willing to say the things that are true.”
“A storyteller does not concern themselves with the truth. Stories are truer than the truth.”
“Drama is illusion that acts like truth, and dharma is truth itself—the way things are, the basic state of reality that does not change from day to day according to fashion or our mood or agenda.”
“The truth is that truth was never high on the agenda of Homo sapiens... false stories have an intrinsic advantage over the truth when it comes to uniting people... If you stick to unalloyed reality, few people will follow you... if you dream of a society in which truth reigns supreme and myths are ignored... Better to try your luck with chimps.”
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