#rut

Academic masochism reflects a metaphysical prejudice that the truth should be a hard-won treasure, that what is read or learnt easily must therefore be flighty and inconsequential. The truth should be like a mount to be scaled, it is dangerous, obscure and demanding. Under the light of the library reading room, the academics' motto reads: the more a text makes me suffer, the truer it must be. ↗

— Alain de Botton

#books #love #truth #love

Those who are enslaved to their sects are not merely devoid of all sound knowledge, but they will not even stop to learn! ↗

— Claudius Galenus

#learning #science #truth #science

The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea for a better one; the essence of theology is that it holds its truths to be eternal and immutable. ↗

— H.L. Mencken

#science #theory #truth #religion

To say that the first casualty of war is truth is to miss the rather more important point that a principal weapon of war is lies. ↗

— Harry M. Collins

#science #technology #truth #war #science

We have lied to ourselves. We have not built this box for the good of our brothers. We built it for its own sake. It is above all our brothers to us, and its truth above their truth. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#science #truth #science

One can give or withhold in a manner far more effective, sophisticated, useful, which is quite invisible to people who think that giving or withholding is done by external assessment. If you seek some mark of favour or 'promotion', know that you are not ready for it. Progress comes through capacity to learn, and is irresistible. Nobody can stand between you and knowledge if you are fit for it. ↗

— Idries Shah

#learning #science #sufis #truth #wisdom

The question of the relation between modernity and postmodernity revolves around the issue of 'legitimation.' Modernity, then, appeals to science to legitimate its claim - and by 'science' we simply mean the notion of a universal, autonomous reason. Science, then, is opposed to narrative, which attempts not to prove its claims but rather to proclaim them within a story. ↗

— James K.A. Smith

#modernity #narrative #postmodernism #reason #science

I was flipping channels, watching this cheerleading program on MTV. They took a field hockey girl and “transformed” her into a cheerleader by the end of the show. I was just wondering: what if she liked field hockey better? ↗

— Jess C. Scott

#books #cool #culture #desire #emotion

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. ↗

— Niels Bohr

#humour #truth #wisdom #wisdom

With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not. ↗

— Sara Gruen

#truth #secret