Byron said, "Truth is always strange -- stranger than fiction." And yet, we are told, "Truth is open to all men." The book of John, in the Bible, says, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." If the truth makes us free, then lies imprison us. Of course, men grow fond of their chains. This is why Tertullian wrote that truth, "from her first appearance, is an enemy." That which is unfamiliar, that which is strange, frightens us. In other words, our first impulse is to deny truth.
As mankind tends to corruption, whether out of weakness or wickedness, it has been alleged that the "truth buys hatred." Michel de Montaigne said the truth was limited, and should be used with discretion. Only children and fools speak true on all occasions. "All truths are not to be told," wrote George Herbert in 1651. Baltasar Gracian wrote that "Truth is for the minority." He also noted that truth always lags behind, and is as hard to tell as to hide. In a similar vein Mary Wortley Montagu lamented, "I know mankind too well to think they are capable of receiving truth, much less of applauding it." Voltaire said, "There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all occasions."
According to Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld, "Truth does not do so much good in the world as its appearances do evil." The philosopher Nietzsche likened truth to dynamite, and truth-seekers to moles who undermine the foundations of our existence. "The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth," said Jean de la Bruyere. We marvel at the denial of truth in ages past. Meanwhile, we deny the truth ourselves. The historian William Lecky said, "Truth is scattered far and wide in small portions among mankind, mingled in every system with the dross of error, grasped perfectly by no one, and only in some degree discovered by the careful comparison and collation of opposing systems."
"Although it may not be always advisable to say all that is true," wrote St. Francis de Sales in 1609, "yet it is never allowable to speak against the truth." George Herbert warned against following the truth "too near the heels, lest it dash out thy teeth." The truth is dangerous, and some have been crucified in its cause. Danger also exists when the truth is used maliciously. The Devil ensnares saints by quoting scripture. William Blake poetized, "A truth that's told with bad intent / Beats all the lies you can invent." Of course, this idea isn't easily credited by an age that has grown so indifferent to truth. "Nobody dies nowadays of a fatal truth," wrote Nietzsche. "There are too many antidotes to them."
Aristotle said, "The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think." Confucius explained that the "aim of the superior man is truth." In a letter to Anthony Collins, John Locke wrote, "To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-pot of all other virtues." We may assume, therefore, that lying is the seed-pot of all vice. "If we would only stop lying," wrote Tolstoy, "if we would only testify to the truth as we see it, it would turn out at once that there are hundreds, thousands, even millions of men just as we are, who see the truth as we do, are afraid as we are of seeming to be singular by confessing it, and are only waiting, again as we are, for someone to proclaim it."
Perhaps you have heard that "truth is an orphan," that the "truth does not lurk in rat-holes," that truth is a lion, that the "truth will out." John Milton said that the truth "needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor licensings to make her victorious; those are the shifts and the defenses that error uses against her power; give her but room, and do not bind her when she sleeps...." Even so, lies are often irresistible, and we should not underrate slick advertising. Plato thought mankind in need of a "noble lie," but what eventually happens when the foundations of your society are built on error? It is the skeptic who finds the truth by weeding out error. A great name may substitute for the truth, but great names do not guarantee veracity. "If you will be persuaded by me," said Socrates, "pay little attention to Socrates, but much more to the truth...."
Truth never grows old, unlike the daily news or petty gossip. The truth, furthermore, requires special handling. Those who bungle had best carry a lie. In this regard, we should think on government and bureaucrats. "It is error alone that needs the support of government," wrote Thomas Jefferson. "Truth can stand by itself." And of course, it usually does stand by itself -- with nobody anywhere near it. "I tell the truth, not as much as I would but as much as I dare," wrote Montaigne. "And I dare more and more as I grow older."
There is also Oscar Wilde's admonition: "If one tells the truth, one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out." Or as they say in Yugoslavia, "Speak the truth and run."
