Being True Quotes - Page 40

• Some things are too terrible to be true.

  Bob Dylan

  Terrible

  Song: Honest With Me, Album: Love And Theft, 2001

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• If it is correct to say that there will always be rightist temperaments and leftist temperaments, it is nevertheless also correct to say that political philosophy is neither rightist nor leftist; it must simply be true .

  Jacques Maritain

  Philosophy, Political, Leftists

  "The Twilight of Civilization". Book by Jacques Maritain (p. 41), 1939.

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• We shall see that the mathematical treatment of the subject [of electricity] has been greatly developed by writers who express themselves in terms of the 'Two Fluids' theory. Their results, however, have been deduced entirely from data which can be proved by experiment, and which must therefore be true, whether we adopt the theory of two fluids or not. The experimental verification of the mathematical results therefore is no evidence for or against the peculiar doctrines of this theory.

  James Clerk Maxwell

  Data, Two, Doctrine

  James Clerk Maxwell (1873). “A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism”, p.38

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• Tis easy now for the heart to be true As for grass to be green or skies to be blue-- 'Tis the natural way of living.

  James Russell Lowell

  Heart, Blue, Sky

  James Russell Lowell (1861). “Poetical Works”, p.3

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• Things we wish to be true are apt to gain too ready credit with us.

  Samuel Richardson

  Wish, Credit, Gains

  Samuel Richardson (1755). “A collection of the moral and instructive sentiments, maxims, cautions, and reflexions, contained in the histories of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison: Digested under proper heads, with references to the volume, ...”, p.19

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• Empirical laws [...] have only slight or even no value beyond the limits within which they have been observed to be true.

  Vilfredo Pareto

  Law, Limits, Has Beens

  Vilfredo Pareto (1971). “Manual of political economy”, Augustus m Kelley Pubs

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• No organism can afford to be conscious of matters with which it could deal at unconscious levels. Broadly, we can afford to sink those sorts of knowledge which continue to be true regardless of changes in the environment, but we must maintain in an accessible place all those controls of behavior which must be modified for every instance. The economics of the system, in fact, pushes organisms toward sinking into the unconscious those generalities of relationship which remain permanently true and toward keeping within the conscious the pragmatic of particular instances.

  Gregory Bateson

  Levels, Matter, Facts

  "Steps to an Ecology of Mind". Book by Gregory Bateson, 1972.

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• It is impossible that a man who is false to his friends and neighbours should be true to the public.

  George Berkeley

  Men, Impossible, Should

  1750 Maxims Concerning Patriotism.

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• Although a person acting under authority performs actions that seem to violate standards of conscience, it would not be true to say that he loses his moral sense. Instead, it acquires a radically different focus. He does not respond with a moral sentiment to the actions he performs. Rather, his moral concern now shifts to a consideration of how well he is living up to the expectations that the authority has of him.

  Stanley Milgram

  Expectations, Focus, Acting

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• Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect. Be true to your own mind and conscience, your heart and your soul. So only can you be true to God.

  Theodore Parker

  Heart, Self, Soul

  Theodore Parker (1853). “Two Sermons Preached Before the Twenty-eighth Congregational Society in Boston: On the 14th and 21st of November, 1852, on Leaving Their Old and Entering a New Place of Worship”, p.58

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• There is an enormous pressure placed on gay novelists because they are the only spokespeople. The novelist's first obligation is to be true to his own vision, not to be some sort of common denominator or public relations man to all gay people.

  Edmund White

  Gay, Men, People

  Publishers Weekly, September 24, 1982.

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• Our assent to the hypothesis implies that it is held to be true of all particular instances. That these cases belong to past or to future times, that they have or have not already occurred, makes no difference in the applicability of the rule to them. Because the rule prevails, it includes all cases.

  William Whewell

  Past, Differences, Cases

  William Whewell (1968). “Theory of Scientific Method”, p.151, Hackett Publishing

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• A common objection to inherited wealth is that it stifles the urge to work. I have not generally observed this to be true.

  Louis Auchincloss

  Common, Wealth, Objections

  Louis Auchincloss (2010). “A Voice from Old New York: A Memoir of My Youth”, p.24, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Life on earth is hard. Competition for the necessities of life is fierce. How ridiculous to believe that the law of harsh survival would not be true elsewhere, or that it would be negated by the progress of technology in an advanced civilization.

  Greg Bear

  Believe, Technology, Civilization

  Greg Bear (2014). “The Forge of God”, p.246, Open Road Media

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• It never hurts to be involved in any political or activist organization. I can never see how participation would be a bad thing. The key is being true to what you participate with and who.

  John Cusack

  Hurt, Keys, Organization

  "Talking With John Cusack". The Washington Post Interview, www.washingtonpost.com. June 20, 2008.

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• I think it's what we've always tried to do, is just find a unique way in, and find a unique way to be true to what the character is from the comics and what fans are aware of and expecting. And at the same time do it in a way that mainstream audiences and as wide an audience as possible can find their own way into it.

  Kevin Feige

  Character, Unique, Thinking

  "ANT-MAN Set Visit: Kevin Feige Talks Expanding Mythology and More". Interview with Matt Goldberg, collider.com. June 22, 2015.

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• I, with millions of other Americans, have the same dream Martin Luther King Jr. had; when I wake up I wish some of the things I dreamt would be true. I wish that little black and white boys and girls would hold hands without being shocked at their nearness to each other and say in a natural way, "we have overcome.

  Maya Angelou

  Girl, Dream, Kings

  FaceBook post by Maya Angelou from Aug 28, 2013

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• Time and space are absolute. Diseases are evil spirits that inhabit the body. Parallel lines never meet. The earth is the center of the universe. Children are miniature adults. At one time in history each of these beliefs was generally held to be true. Each, however, gave way to different ideas and even different world views.

  Michael Lewis

  Children, Views, Ideas

  Michael Lewis (1998). “Altering Fate: Why the Past Does Not Predict the Future”, p.17, Guilford Press

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• Were it not for Occam's Razor, which always demands simplicity, I'd be tempted to believe that human beings are more influenced by distant causes than immediate ones. This would especially be true of overeducated people, who are capable of thinking past the immediate, of becoming obsessed by the remote. It's the old stuff, the conflicts we've never come to terms with, that sneaks up on us, half forgotten, insisting upon action.

  Richard Russo

  Believe, Past, Thinking

  "Straight Man". Book by Richard Russo, 1997.

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• In a democracy, every ordinary citizen is effectively a king--but a king in a constitutional democracy, a monarch who decides only formally, whose function is merely to sign off on measures proposed by an executive administration. This is why the problem with democratic rituals is homologous to the great problem of constitutional monarchy: how to protect the dignity of the king? How to maintain the appearance that the king effectively makes decisions, when we all know this not to be true?

  Slavoj Žižek

  Kings, Decision, Democracy

  Slavoj Žižek (2009). “First As Tragedy, Then As Farce”, p.134, Verso

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• It may be true that love is blind, but only for what is ugly: its sight is keen enough for what is beautiful.

  Ivan Panin

  Love, Beautiful, Sight

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• I'll be true, I'll be useful...I'll be cavalier...I'll be yours my dear.and I'll belong to you...if you'll just let me through.this is easy as lovers go,so don't complicate it by hesitating.and this is wonderful as loving goes,this is tailor-made, whats the sense in waiting?

  Chris Carrabba

  Waiting, Tailors, Lovers

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• In Buddhism, compassion always goes with wisdom. Compassion without wisdom is not understood to be true compassion, and wisdom without compassion is not true wisdom.

  Masao Abe

  Buddhism, Compassion, Understood

  Masao Abe (2016). “Buddhism and Interfaith Dialogue: Part one of a two-volume sequel to Zen and Western Thought”, p.15, Springer

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• I paint with a language I can call my own... it takes a ruthless honesty with oneself. If one admires or is influenced by anyone else, one is not being true to oneself.

  Scott Kahn

  Honesty, Language, Paint

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• The truth of the scholar, alone in his study, does not always accord with what the world at large considers to be true.

  Eiji Yoshikawa

  Truth, Doe, World

  Eiji Yoshikawa (1981). “Musashi”, HarperCollins Publishers

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