QuoteProject
If it were true what in the end would be gained? Nothing but another truth. Is this such a mighty advantage? We have enough old truths still to digest, and even these we would be quite unable to endure if we did not sometimes flavor them with lies.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote questions the value of new truths, suggesting that existing truths are already overwhelming and often require embellishment.

In this quote, Georg C. Lichtenberg reflects on the nature of truth and the human condition regarding knowledge. He implies that while uncovering new truths may seem important, it may not provide significant benefits since we are already burdened with established truths that challenge our understanding. Moreover, he suggests that people often find it necessary to temper these truths with 'lies' or comforting distortions to make them more palatable, highlighting a complex relationship with reality and perception.

Themes

TruthLiesKnowledgePhilosophyPerceptionReality

In practice

Example use cases

In a philosophy discussion group, when discussing the complexities of truth.

More from Georg C. Lichtenberg

The Greeks possessed a knowledge of human nature we seem hardly able to attain to without passing through the strengthening hibernation of a new barbarism.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
Astronomy is perhaps the science whose discoveries owe least to chance, in which human understanding appears in its whole magnitude, and through which man can best learn how small he is.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
The thoughts written on the walls of madhouses by their inmates might be worth publicizing.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
Food probably has a very great influence on the condition of men. Wine exercises a more visible influence, food does it more slowly but perhaps just as surely. Who knows if a well-prepared soup was not responsible for the pneumatic pump or a poor one for a war?
Georg C. LichtenbergRead

Similar quotes

I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life. We cannot support any act of killing; no killing can be justified. But not to kill is not enough ... If in your thinking you allow the killing to go on, you also break this precept. We must be determined not to condone killing, even in our minds.
Nhat HanhRead
Of this stamp is the cant of, Not men, but measures.
Edmund BurkeRead
The partisan strife in which the people of the country are permitted to periodically engage does not tend to the development of ugly traits of character, but merely discloses those that preexist.
Ambrose BierceRead
It is natural for the mind to believe and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false.
Blaise PascalRead
But if nothing but soul, or in soul mind, is qualified to count, it is impossible for there to be time unless there is soul, but only that of which time is an attribute, i.e. if change can exist without soul.
AristotleRead
Our interconnectedness on the planet is the dominating truth of the 21st century. One stark result is that the world's poor live, and especially die, with the awareness that the United States is doing little to mobilise the weapons of mass salvation that could offer them survival, dignity and eventually the escape from poverty.
Jeffrey SachsRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.