INTRODUCTION
On this page you will find quotations on the primacy of Truth from a
wide number of sources. Thinkers throughout the ages have seen the
importance of Truth even though they have not necessarily been able to
define it.
This section has expanded with quotations from a wide number of
unexpected sources. To be fair to the authors, I have included the
context of several quotes in which these important ideas were presented.
I do not necessarily endorse every opinion, because it becomes clear
that when one studies the rest of the writings of these authors, their
notion of Truth is usually far off the mark from what I believe is the
correct definition of Truth.
QUOTES ON TRUTH
Truth is the first principle of Thy words.
Psalm 119:160
The truth is to be prized and reverenced above all things else.
Dionysius; (c165-175 AD); ANF6; p81.
There is no more pleasant food for the soul
than the knowledge of truth.
Lactantius; (c240-320); ANF7; p10.
Nothing is greater than truth.
Clement of Alexandria; (c150-216); ANF2; Stromata; Bk vii, Ch xviii;
p554.
Nothing can be clearer or mightier than truth.
Chrysostom; (349-407); NPNF-I-14; p99.
[…] while
both are dear, piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.
Aristotle; (384-322 BC); Nicomachean Ethics;
1096a.
Truth is that than which nothing is more powerful.
Justin; (c150-160); ANF1;
Fragments; p301.
The gospel of truth is a joy for those who have received from the Father
of truth the gift of knowing him[…]
Gospel of Truth;
2nd c. AD.;
The Nag Hammadi Library; J. M. Robinson; p37.
Do not prize concord above truth, but make a noble stand, even to death.
Chrysostom; (349-407); NPNF-I-11; p508.
Truth is not merely one good among others, it is the highest good.
St. Augustine; (354-430); De Libero Arbitrio; Williams; p59.
Truth is accountable to no mortal thing, but stands above them all.
Chrysostom; (349-407); NPNF-I -14; p99.
St. John; 6:27-
For him hath God the Father sealed.
The Jews speak much of the seal of God; which may not be impertinently remembered at this time,
“What is the seal of the holy blessed God? R. Bibai, in the name of R. Reuben, saith,
Truth
(AMT). But what is truth?
R. Bon saith,
The living God and King eternal.
Resh Lachish saith, Aleph is the first letter of the alphabet, Mem the
middle, and Tav the last: q. d. I the Lord am the first; I received nothing of any one; and beside me there is no God: for there is not any that intermingles with me; and I am with the last.”
There is a story of the great synagogue weeping, praying, and fasting; “At length there was a little scroll fell
from the firmament to them, in which was written,
Truth. R. Chaninah saith, Hence learn that truth is the seal of God.”
We may easily apply all this to Christ, who is “the way, the
truth, and the life,” John xiv. 8: he is the express image of his Father, the truth of the
Father; whom the Father, by his seal and diploma, hath confirmed and ratified; as the great ruler both of his kingdom and family.
Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica; John Lightfoot
(1602-1675); Vol. 3; Matthew – 1 Corinthians; 1675/1859/2003; p303; Exercitations upon St. John; ch6 v27.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
[…
] we must acknowledge that there is one kind of being which is always the
same, uncreated and indestructible, never receiving anything into itself from without, nor itself going out to any other, but invisible and imperceptible by any sense, and of which contemplation is granted to intelligence only.
Plato;
Timaeus
; [52]; 375 BC.
O son, Truth is the most perfect virtue, and the highest good itself, not troubled
by matter, not encompassed by a body, naked, clear, unchangeable, venerable, unalterable good.
What therefore doth thou affirm to be the first Truth, O father?
The One and Only, that is not of matter, that is not in a body, that is without color, without figure or shape, Immutable, Unalterable, which always is.
Hermes Trismegistus; Bk XV; 2nd c. AD.
Without the truth there is no knowing.
Thomas à Kempis; (1380-1471);
Imitation of Christ; Bk 3; ch 56.
The Truth is one thing for which
there are no known substitutes.
Unknown.
Men seek the Truth not because it is lost, but because they are.
Unknown.
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me Truth.
Henry Thoreau; (1817-1862);
Walden; Ch 18.
Would that I could discover truth
as easily as I can discover falsehood.
Cicero; 44 BC.
[…] if truth had a beginning or will have an end, then before truth began it
was true that there was no truth, and after it will have ended, it will then be
true that there will be no truth. […] Therefore truth existed before there was
truth, and truth will exist after truth will have ended. This is utterly absurd.
Therefore whether truth be said to have a beginning or an end, or be understood
not to have a beginning or an end, truth cannot be limited by a beginning and an
end.
St. Anselm of Canterbury; (1033-1109);
Monologion, Opera Omnia; I; p33.
The truth is the truth whether it is believed or not. It doesn’t hurt the truth
not to be believed, but it hurts you and me if we don’t believe it.
G. H. Hapworth
[…] be disposed to addict your mind to the investigation of truth.
John Calvin; (1509-1564);
Commentary on Genesis; v1; pt2.
Our maker […] has made us
capable of Truth.
John Balguy; (1686-1748); The Foundations of Moral Goodness; 1728.
We cannot find contentment in anything but
truth.
B. Spinoza; (1632-1677);
Ethics
There is no virtue equal to Truth; there is nothing superior to Truth; Truth is
God himself.
Mahabharata; Bk 1; Sec. LXXIV; 5th c. BC Hindu epic.
Great is the truth, and mighty above all
things […] all human beings are unrighteous. There is no truth in them and in
their unrighteousness they will perish. But truth endures and is strong forever,
and lives and prevails forever and ever. To it belongs the strength and the
kingship and the power and the majesty of all the ages. Blessed be the God of
truth. Great is truth, the mightiest of all.
1 Esdras 4:35-41.
[…] where I found truth, there I found my God,
who is the Truth itself.
St. Augustine; (354-430);
Confessions; X; 24.
In the beginning was the TRUTH, and the TRUTH was with God, and God was the
TRUTH.
John 1:1; George Swann; New Testament; 1947 [11/8/10]
We must not think the Truth is from God, or about God, or of God,
[but] we must positively know that the Truth is God! It might give a more
simple and correct concept of God to quote John 1:1 thus:
“[…]
In the beginning was the Truth,
and the
Truth
was with God, and the Truth
was God.”
Dr. Charles W. Noble Sr., Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, Newark, OH
The Greeks were right when they called the logos the principle of truth.
Emil Brunner; (1889-1966);
Truth as Encounter; 1938/1963; p23
Truth comes only from Him who is the truth, and neither Jewish prophet nor
heathen philosopher can attain to it, save by His aid.
Frederic W. Farrar; (1831-1903); Seekers after God; 1890; pix.
What is truth? This question seems the supreme question of philosophy and
science and the pursuit of knowledge. Science seeks truth. Art seeks beauty.
Society seeks justice. Truth tops the list of these three noble pursuits.
Bart Kosko;
Fuzzy Thinking; 1993; p80.
He who wages war against the truth has no power, but rather wounds
himself, as one who kicks against the spike.
Chrysostom; (349-407); NPNF-I-13; p191.
But as the mind [is] to the body, so must
also truth be preferred to the mind itself, so that the mind should
desire it not only more than the body, but even more than its own self.
So will the mind be more entire and chaste, when it shall enjoy the
immutability of truth, rather than its own mutability.
St. Augustine; (354-430); On Lying; s10
[…]
it is impossible for our intellect to know any truth with certitude without in
some way coming into contact with the highest truth.
[…] Therefore, the principle of our knowledge of any particular being is truth
itself, and this is God.
St. Bonaventure; (1221-1274);
Disputed Questions on the Knowledge of Christ;
qIV.
[5-12-2014]
Since the Truth is come,
the Types have no longer any place.
Chrysostom; (349-407); NPNF-I-12; p86.
[…] TRUTH,
which is the first character of the divine nature, considered, as fully
expressed and showed out to men, just exactly as it is in its own self,
presents to us the second person in the sacred three.
In the
same view, no wonder remains, that JESUS CHRIST claimed every
character proper to original truth, or pure divinity.
Timothy Allen; Answer to Pilate's Question (What is Truth?); 1765; pp
12,13
The soul is not in itself immortal, O Greeks, but mortal. Yet it is possible for
it not to die. If, indeed, it knows not the truth, it dies […] But if it acquires
the knowledge of God, it does not die.
Tatian; (c110-172); ANF2; p70.
Men
of great talent […] applied to the pursuit of investigating the truth which they
so greatly desired to know that they even preferred it to all things. But they
did not obtain the object of their wish, because the truth, that is the secret
of the Most High God, who created all things, cannot be attained by our own
ability and perceptions.
Otherwise there would be no difference between God and man.
Lactantius; (c240-320); The Divine Institutes; ANF7; p9.
I am not unjust as to imagine that they could divine, so that they might find
out the truth themselves, for I acknowledge that this is impossible. To
understand that which is false is truly the part of wisdom, but of human wisdom.
Beyond this step man cannot proceed, but to know the truth is the part of
divine wisdom.
But man by himself cannot attain to this knowledge unless he is taught by God.
Lactantius; (c240-320); The Divine Institutes; ANF7; p44.
Philosophers have reached the height of human wisdom, so as to understand that
which is not; but they have failed in attaining the power of saying
that which really is.
It is a well-known saying of Cicero: “I wish that I could as easily find out the
truth as I can refute false things.” And because this is beyond the power of
man’s condition, the capability of this office is assigned to us, to whom God
has delivered the knowledge of the truth.
Lactantius; (c240-320);
The Divine Institutes; ANF7; p44.
Since the truth is not of this world […] and since the truth is of an entirely
spiritual nature, the various arrangements of matter can contribute nothing to
its success or ruin.
Nicolas Malebranche; (1638-1715); The Search after Truth; p539.
God has made the nature of man most desirous of arriving at the truth, but they
neither know what was true in itself, nor how, nor where, nor with what mind it
is to be sought.
Lactantius; (c240-320);
The Divine Institutes;
ANF7; p69.
In none of the patriarchs, in none of the prophets, in none of the apostles was
there the truth: only in Jesus. For the others knew in part […] they saw as
in a mirror, confusedly. The truth of God appeared only in Jesus, who said
without hesitation: I am the truth.
St. Jerome; (347-420); Ephesians.
It follows that no other hope is proposed to man, unless he shall follow the
true religion and true wisdom, which is in Christ, and he who is ignorant of Him
is always estranged from the truth and from God.
Lactantius; (c240-320); The Divine Institutes; ANF7; p44.
Now the Prophet of the Truth is He who always knows all things, alone entrusted
with the declaration of the truth. Read and you shall find that those were
deceived who thought that they had found the truth of themselves. For this is
peculiar to the Prophet, to declare the truth. As many as have desired to know
the truth, but have not had the good fortune to learn from Him, have not found
it, but have died seeking it. For how can he find the truth who seeks it from
his own ignorance? And even if he find it, he does not know it, and passes it by
as if it were not.
Clementine Homilies; 4th. c. AD; ANF8; p229.
Now it is evident that he who knows not the truth,
does not have a true knowledge of God also.
Socrates Scholasticus; (c390-450); NPNF-II; p33.
Pilate says to him: What is truth?
Jesus says to him: Truth is from heaven.
Pilate says: Is truth not upon earth?
Jesus says to Pilate: Thou seest how those who speak the truth
are judged by those that have the power upon the earth.
The Gospel of Nicodemus; 4th c. AD; ANF8; p418.
If
Jesus says, “I am the truth,” he indicates that in Him the true, the genuine,
the ultimate reality is present; or, in other words, that
God is present, unveiled, undistorted, in His infinite depth, in His
unapproachable mystery. Jesus is not the truth because His teachings are true.
But His teachings are true because they express the truth which He Himself is.
He is more than His words. And He is more than any word said about Him.
Paul Tillich; (1886-1965);
The New Being; 1955; Ch. 8.
All therefore who ever sought the truth, trusting to themselves to be able to
find it, fell into a snare. This is what the philosophers of the Greeks have
suffered, not knowing that he who seeks the truth cannot learn it from his own
understanding. For not even, as I said, can he recognize her when she stands by
him, since he is unacquainted with her. Hence beloved Clement, if you would know
the things pertaining to God, you have to learn them from Him alone, because He
alone knows the truth.
Clementine Homilies; 4th. c. AD; p230.
And what is Truth? That which is not fashioned, nor made, nor represented by
art; that is, which has never been brought into existence, and is on that
account called truth.
Melito the Philosopher; (c160-177); ANF8; p753.
Truth, the one integral truth, is God,
and to perceive Truth, is to enter
divine life.
Nikolas Berdyaev (1874-1948)
The Realm of Spirit and the Realm of Caesar; 1952; p29
Truth–
is as old as God–
His Twin identity
And will endure as long as He
A Co-Eternity–
And perish on the Day
Himself is borne away
From Mansion of the Universe
A lifeless Deity.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Truth is the holy and good thought of God completely unveiled; it is God
revealed.
Frederic Godet; (1812-1900); Gospel of John Commentary; 1886; p274.
Truth is God’s very reality revealing itself […] in Jesus.
Rudolf Bultmann; (1884-1976); Theology of the NT.
Truth is God known.
Frederic Godet; (1812-1900); Gospel of John Commentary; 1886; p279.
The evangelist affirms that the Torah did not, in the full sense, bring grace and truth, but Christ does. The Torah therefore is but a shadow of the true Word
of God, which came in its full reality, in Jesus Christ.
C. H. Dodd; (1884-1973); The Fourth Gospel; 1953/1958; p295.
Truth, in short, is knowledge of God through Jesus; such knowledge of God as through Jesus makes men veritably sons of God.
Edwyn Hoskins; (1884-1937); Francis Davey; The Riddle of the New Testament; 1931/1936; p39
The true knowledge of God is not the result of philosophical investigation. This central and living knowledge of God,
which is the only true knowledge
,
was not possessed by any man, either within or outside of the theocracy, not
even by Moses. One can know everything else, not God! The full truth does not
exist on earth before or outside of Jesus Christ, and it truly came through him.
Frederic Godet; (1812-1900);
Gospel of John Commentary; 1886;
p280.
We think we know what truth is. The chances
are we are thinking in Hellenistic terms, identifying truth with what
corresponds to reality. But the writers of Scripture were not as greatly
influenced by this conception of truth as by the Hebrew conception which
identifies as truth what corresponds to the nature and purpose of God.
Everett F. Harrison;
The Phenomena of
Scripture; in
Revelation and the Bible; Carl. F. H. Henry; ed.; 1959;
p239.
It is tacitly assumed throughout, that “the Truth” and “the knowledge of God”
are identical terms.
Brooke F. Westcott; (1825-1901);
Gospel of John Commentary; 1908; p27.
It is by Christ alone that God makes himself known to us. As God dwells in
inaccessible light (I Tim 6:16), he cannot be known but in Christ, who is his
lively image.
John Calvin; (1509-1564)
[…]
Jesus
is
the truth; He does not simply
state
it. One does not come to Him to ask about truth; one comes to Him as the truth.
Rudolf Bultmann; (1884-1976);
The Gospel of John;
1964/1975; p606.
For by whom has truth ever been discovered without God? By whom has God
ever been found without Christ? By whom has Christ ever been explored
without the Holy Spirit? By whom has the Holy Spirit ever been attained
without the mysterious gift of faith?
Tertullian; (c155-230); ANF3;
A Treatise on the Soul; p181.
Can that be wisdom which is changeable? For what alters and changes and has no stay in one and the same condition, how can that be true? Hence
it is that Christ is not only God, but very God indeed- very God of very God, insomuch that He Himself is the Truth. If, then, we enquire His
name, it is “The Truth.”
St. Ambrose; (c340-397); NPNF-II-10; p219.
Sin had spread its wings, and covered all things,
that none could discern, of himself, the truth–
Truth came down into the womb,
came forth and rolled away error.
Blessed is He who dispelled sin by His birth!
The type has passed and the truth is come.
Come, ye lambs, receive your seal,
for it is Truth that is your seal!
Ephraim the Syrian; 4th c.; NPNF-II-13; pp253-271.