1960's, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde' (1965 - 1969)
“The truth can wait, for she lives a long life.”
Die Wahrheit kann warten: denn sie hat ein langes Leben vor sich.
Willen in der Natur (On the Will in Nature), 1836; in the chapter Einleitung (Introduction)
Variant translation by Karl Hillebrand:
Truth can bide its time, for it has a long life before it.
Other
1980's, I don't necessarily desire a perfect photography,' 1981
“Ever from one who comes to-morrow
Men wait their good and truth to borrow.”
Merlin's Song II http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=l&p=c&a=p&ID=20584&c=323
1860s, May-Day and Other Pieces (1867)
“Yet such is the order of nature. While truth is always bitter, pleasantness waits upon evildoing.”
Ita se natura habet, ut amara sit veritas, blanda vitia existimentur.
Letter 40
Letters
Waiting on God (1950), Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God
Context: Above all our thought should be empty, waiting, not seeking anything, but ready to receive in its naked truth the object that is to penetrate it.
All wrong translations, all absurdities in geometry problems, all clumsiness of style, and all faulty connection of ideas in compositions and essays, all such things are due to the fact that thought has seized upon some idea too hastily, and being thus prematurely blocked, is not open to the truth.
