#lie

Problems can be fixed. But unrequited love is a tragedy. ↗

— Suzanne Harper

#the-juliet-club #love

If I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not believe as I believe, and that is all that it proves. ↗

— Thomas Paine

#tolerance #tolerance

It sounds plausible enough tonight, but wait until tomorrow. Wait for the common sense of the morning. ↗

— H.G. Wells

#morning #common-sense

I know, brother, that you are a straightforward man, and that you pride yourself on it. But put one question to yourself: why in fact should one tell the truth? What obliges us to do it? And why do we consider telling the truth a virtue? Imagine that you meet a madman, who claims that he is a fish and that we are all fish. Are you going to argue with him? Are you going to undress in front of him and show him that you don't have fins? Are you going to say to his face what you think? Well, tell me!' His brother was silent and Edward went on: 'If you told him the whole truth and nothing but the truth, only what you really thought, you would enter into a serious conversation with a madman and you yourself would become mad. And it is the same way with the world that surrounds us. If I obstinately told a man the truth to his face, it would mean I was taking him seriously. And to take something so unimportant seriously means to become less than serious oneself. I, you see, must lie, if I don't want to take madmen seriously and become one of them myself. ↗

— Milan Kundera

#lies #lying #truth #virtue #imagination

[I]t is difficult to imagine a set of beliefs more suggestive of mental illness than those that lie at the heart of many of our religious traditions. ↗

— Sam Harris

#delusion #faith #harris #religion #sam

"Even with your face in such a state, I can see you are quite lovely. I'j used to certain...standards. You will look good traveling on my arem, as part of my entourage." His words make me want to hurl. "You may find I am not the monster you imagine." "Oh, no, " I say. "I bet you're a real prince." "King, actually," he says with a slow grin." ↗

— Julie Reece

#julie-reece #imagination

Do not believe anything merely because you are told it is so, because others believe it, because it comes from Tradition, or because you have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect. Believe, take for your doctrine, and hold true to that, which, after serious investigation, seems to you to further the welfare of all beings. (47) ↗

— Jean-Yves Leloup

#belief #believe #doctrine #teachers #teaching

Get to work. Your work is to keep cranking the flywheel that turns the gears that spin the belt in the engine of belief that keeps you and your desk in midair. ↗

— Annie Dillard

#imagination #writing #writing-life #imagination

Because the child must have a valuable thing which is called imagination. The child must have a secret world in which live things that never were. It is necessary that she believe. She must start out believing in things not of this world. Then when the world becomes too ugly for living in, the child can reach back and live in her imagination. ↗

— Betty Smith

#imagination #ugliness #imagination

What happens to people living in a society where everyone in power is lying, stealing, cheating and killing, and in our hearts we all know this, but the consequences of facing all these lies are so monstrous, we keep on hoping that maybe the corporate government administration and media are on the level with us this time. Americans remind me of survivors of domestic abuse. This is always the hope that this is the very, very, very last time one's ribs get re-broken again. ↗

— Inga Muscio

#lies #politics #power #wisdom #independence