“Trouble is, just because things are obvious doesn't mean they're true.”
Terry Pratchett book Wyrd Sisters
Source: Wyrd Sisters
Source: Deathworld (1960), p. 151
Context: Just because you know a thing is true in theory, doesn't make it true in fact. The barbaric religions of primitive worlds hold not a germ of scientific fact, though they claim to explain all. Yet if one of these savages has all the logical ground for his beliefs taken away — he doesn't stop believing. He then calls his mistaken beliefs 'faith' because he knows they are right. And he knows they are right because he has faith. This is an unbreakable circle of false logic that can't be touched. In reality, it is plain mental inertia. A case of thinking 'what always was' will also 'always be.' And not wanting to blast the thinking patterns out of the old rut.
“Trouble is, just because things are obvious doesn't mean they're true.”
Terry Pratchett book Wyrd Sisters
Source: Wyrd Sisters
“Some things, you know, if you say them, it makes them not true?”
Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
“I know that to be a true fact because I read it in Heat magazine”
Bill Bailey (1965) English comedian, musician, actor, TV and radio presenter and author
Tinselworm (2008)
“Just because a man has died for it, does not make it true.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Megyn Kelly (1970) American reporter
Regarding a magazine article proposing making Santa Claus a penguin,
“Just because something is convincing, that does not make it true. It is merely convincing.”
Karl Schroeder book Ventus
Source: Ventus (2000), Chapter 15 (p. 227)
“The thing that you know to be true is the lie that will kill you.”
Glen Cook book Soldiers Live
Source: Soldiers Live (2000), Chapter 5, “An Abode of Ravens: Headquarters” (p. 384)