“Embellish truth only with a view to gain it the more full and free admission into your hearer's minds; and your ornaments will, in that case, be simple, masculine, natural.”

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 481.

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 "Embellish truth only with a view to gain it the more full and free admission into your hearer's minds; and your ornamen…" by Hugh Blair?

Hugh Blair photo

Hugh Blair16

British philosopher 1718–1800

Related quotes

“As the natural dignity of the subject(of a portrait)is less, the more the ornamental helps are necessary to its embellishments.”

Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) English painter, specialising in portraits

Discourse no. 4, delivered on December 10, 1771; vol. 1, p. 86.
Discourses on Art

“Science is a most useful thing for us all. It is one of the most useful ornaments of man. There is no dress which embellishes the body more than science does the mind.”

Laurent Clerc (1785–1869) French-American deaf educator

Statement of 1864, quoted in Pamphlets on the Deaf, Dumb & Blind http://books.google.com/books?id=FLcMAQAAIAAJ&q=%22There+is+no+dress+which+embellishes+the+body+more+than+science+does+the+mind%22&dq=%22There+is+no+dress+which+embellishes+the+body+more+than+science+does+the+mind%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=UlFgVOWoJY-uyATH1YDACQ&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA

“Intellectual truth alone will not make you free, though it is certainly a necessary preliminary. If this were the case your walls would fall away, since intellectually you understand their rather dubious nature. Since feeling is so often the cohesive with which mind builds, it is feeling itself which must be changed if you would find freedom from your particular plane of existence at your particular time.”

Jane Roberts (1929–1984) American Writer

Session 13, Page 72
The Early Sessions: Sessions 1-42, 1997, The Early Sessions: Book 1

“Ansige unreeled the tale of his tribulations, thoroughly ransacking the truth and then dipping into the bag of embellishment and sprinkling with a free hand.”

Karen Lord (1968) Barbadian novelist and sociologist of religion

Source: Redemption in Indigo (2010), Chapter 2 “Ansige Eats Lamb and Murders a Peacock” (p. 17)

“(…) The problem is not yours – it is your mind’s only. Begin by disassociating yourself from your mind. Resolutely remind yourself that you are not the mind and that its problems are not yours. (…) Be conscious of yourself, watch your mind, give it your full attention. Don’t look for quick results; there may be none within your noticing. Unknown to you, your psyche will undergo a change, there will be more clarity in your thinking, charity in your feeling, purity in your behavior. You need not aim at these –you will witness the change all the same. For, what you are now is the result of inattention and what you become will be the fruit of attention.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) Indian guru

Mind
Source: I am That, P.125.

“It is truth that liberates, not your effort to be free.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher

“Church members shouldn't let themselves be confused. They begin not trusting in their own judgment, and then they're finished. That's a terrible, terrible thing. First, they get conducted in with a nice sweet program, no money, everything free, free, free. And then they get sucked in, and suddenly a few lies get mixed in. They are told that their human nature is wicked and these nice people who gave them all these things wouldn't be lying to them, would they? And then I think once you start distrusting your own mind you're finished. From there you just get more and more confused. Once you think that your own mind is not your friend any more-your own conscience and your own mind is not your friend-then I think you are on your way to insanity. You have been stripped bare. All your defenses are gone.”

Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) American chess prodigy, chess player, and chess writer

1970s, BOBBY FISCHER SPEAKS OUT! (1977)

“Truth is when your mind and your gut agree.”

Shannon Hale Princess Academy

Source: Princess Academy

“It's a useful habit to never believe more than half of what people tell you, and not to concern yourself with the rest. Rather keep your mind free and your path your own.”

Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) Icelandic author

Sjálfstætt fólk (Independent People) (1935), Book Two, Part I: Hard Times

“The greatest truths are the simplest things in the world, simple as your own existence.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Related topics