“It is better to will the good than to know the truth.”
Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) Italian scholar and poet
As quoted in The Renaissance : Essays in Interpretation (1982) by André Chastel , p 107
Copiare il vero può essere una buona cosa, ma inventare il vero è meglio, molto meglio.
Letter to Clara Maffei, October 20, 1876, cited from James P. Cassaro (ed.) Music, Libraries and the Academy (Middleton, Wisconsin: A-R Editions, 2007) p. 218; translation from the same source.
“It is better to will the good than to know the truth.”
Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) Italian scholar and poet
As quoted in The Renaissance : Essays in Interpretation (1982) by André Chastel , p 107
“There are worse things than a lie and there are better things than the truth!”
Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock
Source: Finnikin of the Rock
“Which is better, truth that is a lie or the lie that is truth?”
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor
Source: The Judges
James Burke (science historian) (1936) British broadcaster, science historian, author, and television producer
Connections (1979), 1 - The Trigger Effect
Context: The Egyptians built an empire and ran it with a handful of technology... the wheel, irrigation canals, the loom, the calendar, pen & ink, some cutting tools, some simple metallurgy, and the plough, the invention that triggered it all off. And yet look how complex and sophisticated their civilisation was. And how soon it happened, after that first man-made harvest. The Egyptian plough and those of the few other civilisations sprang up around the world at the same time... Gave us control over nature... And at the same time, tied us for good, to the things that we invent so that tomorrow will be better than today. The Egyptians knew that. That's why they had gods. To make sure that their systems didn't fail.
Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"
Source: More Letters of Charles Darwin, Vol 2
“The truth doesn’t hurt. Whatever it is, it doesn’t hurt. It’s better to know the truth.”
Ricky Gervais (1961) English comedian, actor, director, producer, musician, writer, and former radio presenter
"Inside the Actors Studio," 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBBtYcK9Jb8
“The real truths are those that can be invented.”
Karl Kraus (1874–1936) Czech playwright and publicist
Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)