“The closer people are to the truth, the more tolerant they are of the mistakes of others.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 258)
Truth Quotes
“To [Bruce] Lee’s way of thinking, any answer he could provide is worth nothing to any other individual, unless that individual has come to see its validity as a result of his own independent thought on the matter.”
John Little, via Striking Thoughts (Page xxiv)
“A teacher is never a giver of truth; he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself. A good teacher is merely a catalyst.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts (Page xvi)
“Much has been said of the loneliness of wisdom, and how much the Truth seeker becomes a pilgrim wandering from start to star. To the ignorant, the wise man is lonely because he abides in distant heights of the mind. But the wise man himself does not feel lonely. Wisdom brings him nearer to life; closer to the heart of the world than the foolish man can ever be. Bookishness may lead to loneliness, and scholarship may end in a battle of beliefs, but the wise man gazing off into space sees not an emptiness, but a space full of life, truth, and law.”
Manly P. Hall
“Only the truth which was acquired by your own thinking, through the efforts of your intellect, becomes a member of your own body, and only this truth really belongs to us.”
Arthur Schopenhauer, via A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 146)
“just because someone was wrong once, it doesn’t mean they are going to be wrong forever. similarly, just because we may perceive someone as wrong, it does not necessarily mean that we are right. in most cases we lack the perfect information required to form an objective and universal perspective. it is important to remember that we are all imperfect and that we all live through the limited perspective of ego. striving to learn as much as we can from one another without making harsh and permanent judgments is a sign of wisdom.”
Yung Pueblo, Inward (Page 183)
“A man is wise who does three things: first, he does by himself those things which he advises others to do; secondly, he does not do anything that contravenes the truth; and thirdly, he is patient with the weaknesses of those who surround him.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 116)
“To tell the truth is the same as to be a good tailor, or to be a good farmer, or to write beautifully. To be good at any activity requires practice: no matter how hard you try, you cannot do naturally what you have not done repeatedly. In order to get accustomed to speaking the truth, you should tell only the truth, even in the smallest of things.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 67)
“The only way to tell the truth is to speak with kindness. Only the words of a loving man can be heard.”
Henry David Thoreau, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 67)
“If you think it is ever warranted to stop on the path of further understanding, you are very far from the truth. The life which we received was given to us not that we might just admire it, but that we should ever look for new truth hidden from us.”
John Milton, via A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 63)
“If you want to be a good writer, if you want to be a writer that has something to say, you can’t be afraid to write your truths, even if these truths are going to hurt some people around you. Good writers hurt their friends from time to time, this is the cost of doing business, this is the cost of writing truths.”
Cole Schafer
“How rotten and fraudulent when people say they intend to ‘give it to you straight.’ What are you up to, dear friend? It shouldn’t need your announcement, but be readily seen as if written on your forehead, heard in the ring of your voice, a flash in your eyes—just as the beloved sees it all in the lover’s glance. In short, the straightforward and good person should be like a smelly goat—you know when they are in the room with you.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 304)
“If one can actually revert to the truth, then a great deal of one’s suffering can be erased—because a great deal of one’s suffering is based on sheer lies.”
R. D. Laing, via Sunbeams (Page 134)
“Won’t you be walking in your predecessors’ footsteps? I surely will use the older path, but I find a shorter and smoother way, I’ll blaze a trail there. The ones who pioneered these paths aren’t our masters, but our guides. Truth stands open to everyone, it hasn’t been monopolized.”
Seneca, via The Daily Stoic (Page 251)
“If you tell the truth, you have infinite power supporting you; but if not, you have infinite power against you.”
Charles Gordon, via Sunbeams (Page 97)
“Respect for the vulnerability of human beings is a necessary part of telling the truth, because no truth will be wrested from a callous vision or callous handling.”
Anaïs Nin, via Sunbeams (Page 94)