“The pursuit of truth is chimerical. That is why it is so hard to say what truth is. There is no permanent absolute unchangeable truth; what we should pursue is the most convenient arrangement of our ideas.”

— Samuel Butler

Truth, ii
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XIX - Truth and Convenience

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The pursuit of truth is chimerical. That is why it is so hard to say what truth is. There is no permanent absolute unch…" by Samuel Butler?

Samuel Butler 232

novelist 1835–1902

Related quotes

“Since there is no such thing as absolute rightness and truth, we always pursue the artificial, leading, human truth. We judge and make a truth that excludes other truths. Art plays a formative part in this manufacture of truth.”

Gerhard Richter (1932) German visual artist, born 1932

Notes, 1962; as cited on collected quotes on the website of Gerhard Richter: 'on Art' https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/quotes/art-1
1960's

“Poetry, we might say, is concerned with the truth of what is, not with what is truth.”

Herbert Read (1893–1968) English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art

What is a Poem - Endword - Selected Poems (1926)

“All we know of the truth is that the absolute truth, such as it is, is beyond our reach.”

Nicholas of Cusa book De Docta Ignorantia

De Docta Ignorantia (On Learned Ignorance) (1440)

“He thought about that for a moment, wondered what he should say. The truth or nothing. The truth.”

Octavia E. Butler book Adulthood Rites

Part IV “Home” chapter 5 (p. 501)
Adulthood Rites (1988)

“When we won’t admit to the truth of what we want, we simultaneously fight against our truth and for our truth.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

“Don't worry over what the newspapers say. I don't. Why should anyone else? I told the truth to the newspaper correspondents - but when you tell the truth to them they are at sea.”

William Howard Taft (1857–1930) American politician, 27th President of the United States (in office from 1909 to 1913)

Quoted in Henry Pringle (1939), The Life and Times of William Howard Taft.
Attributed

“The truth is what the facts are, and that’s what we should teach.”

Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast

Patheos, Orwellian Legislative Duplicity on HB 1485 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/reasonadvocates/2017/05/05/orwellian-legislative-duplicity-hb-1485/ (May 5, 2017)

“It is hard, what I have told you, I know, and I will be condemned for being so hard in my phrasing, but I cannot tell you anything else, for it is the truth! Why should I deny it?”

Adolf Eichmann (1906–1962) German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer

Argentina Audiotapes (1957)

“There is truth in what you say. Truth is a dangerous muse. One dies for the truth.”

Nick Drake (poet) (1961) British writer

Source: The Rahotep series, Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011), Ch. 2

“Why do we call all our generous ideas illusions, and the mean ones truths?”

Edith Wharton book The House of Mirth

Source: The House of Mirth

“The pursuit of truth is chimerical. That is why it is so hard to say what truth is. There is no permanent absolute unchangeable truth; what we should pursue is the most convenient arrangement of our ideas.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Samuel Butler 232

Related quotes

Related topics