Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.
Alfred AdlerRead
A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A lie only holds value if there is a perceived threat from the truth.
This quote suggests that lies serve a purpose in the presence of uncomfortable or dangerous truths. When the truth is viewed as potentially harmful or threatening, people may resort to lying as a means of self-protection or to manipulate situations, highlighting the complexities of human behavior and the value we place on honesty and deception.
Themes
LieTruthDangerDeceptionSelf-Protection
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about ethical dilemmas in a philosophy class.
More from Alfred Adler
All quotes βWar is not the continuation of politics with different means, it is the greatest mass-crime perpetrated on the community of man.
Alfred AdlerRead
Every individual acts and suffers in accordance with his peculiar teleology, which has all the inevitability of fate, so long as he does not understand it.
Alfred AdlerRead
The science of the mind can only have for its proper goal the understanding of human nature by every human being, and through its use, brings peace to every human soul.
Alfred AdlerRead
All failures - neurotics, psychotics, criminals, drunkards, problem children, suicides, perverts, and prostitutes - are failures because they are lacking in social interest
Alfred AdlerRead
What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can without drowning - and some of them many times over - what do you find? That you can swim? Well - life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live!
Alfred AdlerRead
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You like every one; that is to say, you are indifferent to every one.
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The inability to correctly perceive reality is often responsible for humans' insane behavior. And every time they substitute an all-purpose, sloppy slang word for the words that would accurately describe an emotion or a situation, it lowers their reality orientations, pushes them farther from shore, out onto the foggy waters of alienation and confusion.
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But why do some people support [the heretics]?" "Because it serves their purposes, which concern the faith rarely, and more often the conquest of power." "Is that why the church of Rome accuses all its adversaries of heresy?" "That is why, and that is also why it recognizes as orthodoxy any heresy it can bring back under its own control or must accept because the heresy has become too strong.
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If some books are deemed most baneful and their sale forbid, how then with deadlier facts, not dreams of doting men? Those whom books will hurt will not be proof against events. Events, not books should be forbid.
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