“Vitam impendre vero. (To stake one's life for the truth.)”
Source: A Wrinkle in Time
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Madeleine L'Engle 223
American writer 1918–2007Related quotes
Source: Between stigma and charisma: new religious movements and public mental health (Tussen stigma en charisma: nieuwe religieuze bewegingen en volksgezondheid) Deventer, Van Loghum Slaterus, page 343.
“Dreyfus is innocent. I swear it! I stake my life on it — my honor!”
Appeal for Dreyfus delivered at his trial for libel (22 February 1898).
Context: Dreyfus is innocent. I swear it! I stake my life on it — my honor! At this solemn moment, in the presence of this tribunal which is the representative of human justice, before you, gentlemen of the jury, who are the very incarnation of the country, before the whole of France, before the whole world, I swear that Dreyfus is innocent. By my forty years of work, by the authority that this toil may have given me, I swear that Dreyfus is innocent. By all I have now, by the name I have made for myself, by my works which have helped for the expansion of French literature, I swear that Dreyfus is innocent. May all that melt away, may my works perish if Dreyfus be not innocent! He is innocent. All seems against me — the two Chambers, the civil authority, the military authority, the most widely-circulated journals, the public opinion which they have poisoned. And I have for me only an ideal of truth and justice. But I am quite calm; I shall conquer. I was determined that my country should not remain the victim of lies and injustice. I may be condemned here. The day will come when France will thank me for having helped to save her honor.
“[W]hen one plays for top prizes one must be prepared to pay top stakes.”
The Roman Empire (1967), p. 125
General sources
Source: Hainish Cycle, City of Illusions (1967), Chapter 7
“I have wedded the cause of human improvement, staked on it my fortune, my reputation and my life.”
Self-written epitaph on her tombstone in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati Ohio (c. 1850)
“Odds life! must one swear to the truth of a song?”
A Better Answer; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“To search for truth should be the main goal in one's life.”
Thought at Sunrise (2007)
Context: To search for truth should be the main goal in one's life. This is a very difficult task. Let us begin by asking what is truth? What is untruth? To make this decision itself is difficult. Once the decision has been made, it is even more difficult to understand the limitations possible even in truth: elements of doubt and illusion. The Ultimate Truth is still far away, even if we are anywhere near relative truth, it should be deemed a great achievement. Those who live by truth sometimes become so dogged in their pursuit that even their truth seems a lie. Without control over passions and practicing neutrality, purity and straightforwardness, do we have a right to seek the truth?