Truths

There are many quotes about "truth". A lot of them do not make much sense, or are often just a more or less shallow interpretation of one's own ever changing perception.
Example: "I have always noticed that people will never laugh at anything that is not based on truth." - Will Rogers.
The words that make this quote weak are "always" and "never" in the same sentence. The words "I have ... noticed ..." makes it acceptable though. But still weak. As I have sometimes noticed that people laugh at things that do not have a shred of truth in them. Example: the comedian, when he's on his boat waiting for the bridge to go up, says when it takes too long, he throws viagra in the water and the bridge goes right up. Not a single shred of truth. And not funny. Yet thousands of people laughed out load when he said it in the theater. I witnessed it. There you have it.
Lamer than lame. And that's an opinion. Another one is that the following quotes are all but lame...

Sensible quotes on truth...

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four; calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

[paraphrased] - Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States of America

No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.

[paraphrased] - Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist

There are no whole truths: all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil.

- Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician and philosopher

Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.

[paraphrased] - Buddha (Siddhārtha Gautama), spiritual teacher

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.

- Daniel Patrick Moynihan, American politician and sociologist

A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if nobody believes it.

- David Stevens, MD & MA in Ethics and CEO of CMDA

There is nothing to fear except the persistent refusal to find out the truth, the persistent refusal to analyze the causes of happenings.

- Dorothy Thompson, American journalist

Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.

- Edward R. Murrow, American broadcast journalist

New opinions often appear first as jokes and fancies, then as blasphemies and treason, then as questions open to discussion, and finally as established truths.

- George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright

It is very hard to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings – much harder than to say something fine about them which is not the exact truth.

- George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), English novelist

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

- George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), English novelist and journalist

The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.

- Gloria Steinem, American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist

Truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues, and lies have always been regarded as justifiable tools in political dealings.

- Hannah Arendt, German-Jewish political theorist and labeled philosopher

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.

- John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States of America

It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of truth.

- John Locke, English physician and philosopher and regarded Enlightenment thinker

Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.

- Leonardo da Vinci, Italian polymath, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer

It is not the possession of truth, but the success which attends the seeking after it, that enriches the seeker and brings happiness to him.

- Max Planck, German physicist and considered founder of the quantum theory

The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth.

- Pierre Abélard, medieval French scholastic philosopher, theologian and preeminent logician

Truth, and goodness, and beauty are but different faces of the same all.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, philosopher, and poet

As long as people believe in absurdities, they will continue to commit atrocities.

- Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher known for his wit and his defense of civil liberties, including both freedom of religion and free trade

On the question: "If someone is telling the truth and no one believes them, is it really the truth?", 94% of the 568 respondents in July 2006 until July 2007 (after that, the forum on youthink.com became silent) answered yes.

What a relief!

Some of the reactions were however quite unsettling. It is a well known and recognised phenomenon, that a large portion of the people who react, do so in the spur of the moment, not thinking through what they are writing. Sometimes they don't even bother to read and comprehend the text completely beforehand. The internet community even thought of a name for such people: "fucktards". Nonetheless, not everybody falls into that category.

Here are the reactions published, reactions to reactions are bundled for easier reading:

Sure it can be. Just because no one believes them doesn't mean they're not telling the truth.
It's still the truth in my opinion. Everyone thought the sun rotated around the earth even though it was proven that the earth moves around the sun.
	what she said
Who are the idiots who clicked 'No'?
	that's what I'd like to know as well
	Agreed.
It could be... although even if it was, I'd have a hard time believing it if so many people were doubting it. Perhaps the person telling 'the truth' has lied so much in the past that no one can take anything they say seriously anymore. Just a thought.
	That's what I was trying to get at ....thanks
but it still is the truth.
lmao cryn out. Why wouldn't it be?
Just because no one believes them doesn't mean they are lying...
Of course it still is.
Of course. The most fundamental example would be math, I think - two plus two will always equal four.
	How do you know that? You think it is logical, but it is possible that your logic is just distorted, as is mine. It could equal 3.14 for all you know. Meh. This question is stupid falc! Truth = truth. However, if I were to say that the word 'elicit' means 'To bring or draw out ', and everyone in the world refuted that, and claimed that it meant 'to mimic a pirate', then it would mean 'to mimic a pirate'. That's as close as I can get to making this question work. But then again, as long as I know 'elicit' to mean what it currently does, then that meaning still holds true... even if it's just for me.
		And how exactly are you going to explain that? The only thing that could possibly be distorted about that is the system for numbers - that is, what we choose to represent numbers ("two" and "four" in this case) might not be correct. But I just don't see how you can challenge fundamental addition.
		The first part of your answer makes me laugh--you dispute the accuracy of logic, and then pin your opinion on the logic of "truth=truth". Anyway, all that is just a question of semantics: the labels we give to things are a linguistic reflection of reality, but not reality itself, if that makes sense. With subjective/objective truth, there is the important distinction between reality and experience. Reality (not just physical...) is there--some of it is always relevant, some of it is sometimes relevant, and some of it is irrelevant to us, but it's all there as truth; the way we experience it through our senses, intuition, imagination, and what we're told, is our understanding. This should reflect truth, but sometimes doesn't: so our understanding of truth doesn't affect truth itself. Idealism that says truth exists in our minds goes against everything else we live within and know. In terms of truth-telling, do you think we have a right to tell lies? The institution of communication essentially exists to pass understanding (existing directly in relation to truth) between one person and another. So lying and treating truth as 'fluid' is so destructive: all of us endowed with the capability to think and speak have the social, if not moral, responsibility to avoid duplicity.
			That sure sucks, doesn't it? That was the whole last, say, six months of my marriage.
Sure it is.
I think it depends on whether truth can have many variations, and not just one absolute truth. If it's universal truth, it's the truth. If it's a personal truth, it can vary depending on someone's perspective. If someone strongly believes they are the incarnate of a historical figure, it is their personal truth and what they live their life by, but it is not necessarily accepted by others.
	Bullsh*t. What do you mean by their own personal truth? You mean their own personal delusion? Truth and delusion are two very different things.
		First, if you call it a delusion you must first know the truth. However, no-one is all knowing, and deciding that something is just a delusion may be a delusion in itself. Truth can be subjective. An instance is "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder". Your opinion of someone else is the truth as you see it, but others may think otherwise, and this does not make your or their judgement inaccurate. Sometimes truth encompasses many variations and are all part of the whole.
			Truth isn't subjective. Some things are subjective, because they aren't 'truth'. Like the beauty thing, it's a matter of opinion, not an absolute.
				If someone does not think a viewpoint or concept is true, and makes sense, they won't adopt it as an opinion.
					Yeah, that's right. Sometimes people are wrong, sometimes we're talking about matters of opinion and not absolutes. Doesn't mean that if everybody believed the earth revolved around the moon, that would become the way things actually are, for an extreme example.
						Doesn't mean that if everybody believed the earth revolved around the moon, that would become the way things actually are, for an extreme example.' That's pretty much accurate. Opinion is the thing that alters 'truths'. But these truths aren't absolute truths like whether or not I am 'incarnate of a historical figure' or not.
					In case you forgot this - 'If someone strongly believes they are the incarnate of a historical figure, it is their personal truth and what they live their life by, but it is not necessarily accepted by others.' You seem to be backtracking. That's good. It's good to know you've changed your argument to something like beauty being subjective, because it is. I can accept that as a definition for your personal truth. Your initial example is just wrong though. You seem to be accepting this now.
Contrary to popular myth, the truth is not subjective. If something is the way things are, they way something happened no amount of public opinion will make it untrue.
The truth is the truth no matter who believes or doesn't believe.
Yeah it's still the truth.
What is the truth? really.
	Yeah, truth is pretty much what the majority of people know as right.
Can be. And it sucks.
Truth is still truth even if no one wants to accept it as truth.
Umm...yeah.
If it's true, yes.
This reminded me of my philosophy class and the Greek character Cassandra. Yes
Of course, why not?
The truth is truth, whether anyone believes it or not. Truth is not based on belief, but by fact.
Well, yeah. I would think so.