The Perception of Truth: 10 Quotes About Truth

What is your perception of truth?

I've been reflecting on the word truth the past couple of days and have come to an interesting conclusion -- it's all a matter of perspective.

I find this interesting because I find that for the most part I've always taken to truth to be absolute. So I looked truth up in the dictionary and found these 3 definitions:

1. the true or actual state of a matter: He tried to find out the truth
2. conformity with fact or reality; verity: the truth of a statement
3. a verified or indisputable fact, propostion, principle, or the like

We're taught that the "truth is out there" and we're inundated with messages that promote a particular truth, but my truth and your truth may be very different. So who's is the correct truth?

So, in the spirit of finding the truth, here are my 10 favorite quotes about the nature of truth:

1. The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths. (William James)


2. The thought that provokes thought is much more valuable than the thought that is only an echo of an accepted truth. (Thomas W. Hanford)


3. Candor is a double-edged sword; it may heal or it may separate. (Wilhelm Stekel)


4. When in doubt, tell the truth. (Mark Twain)


5. The Greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. (Stephen Hawking)


6. The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. (Niels Bohr)


7. The greatest friend of truth is time, her greatest enemy is prejudice, and her constant companion humility. (Chuck Colson)


8. It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. (Adrian Rodgers)


9. Truth is not determined by majority vote. (Doug Gwyn)


10. The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple. (Oscar Wilde)

What is your perception of truth? Or maybe, to quote another famous line, "you can't handle the truth!"