“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

—  Oscar Wilde , The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Context: Jack: That, my dear Algy, is the whole truth pure and simple.
Algernon: The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!

Act I
Often quoted as "The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The truth is rarely pure and never simple." by Oscar Wilde?
Oscar Wilde photo
Oscar Wilde 812
Irish writer and poet 1854–1900

Related quotes

Marvin Minsky photo

“Theorems often tell us complex truths about the simple things, but only rarely tell us simple truths about the complex ones. To believe otherwise is wishful thinking or "mathematics envy."”

Marvin Minsky (1927–2016) American cognitive scientist

Music, Mind, and Meaning (1981)

Adrienne Rich photo

“Poetries are no more pure and simple than human histories are pure and simple. And there are colonised poetics and resilient poetics, transmissions across frontiers not easily traced.”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

"Legislators of the world" in The Guardian (18 November 2006) http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1950812,00.html
Context: I'm both a poet and one of the "everybodies" of my country. I live with manipulated fear, ignorance, cultural confusion and social antagonism huddling together on the faultline of an empire. I hope never to idealise poetry — it has suffered enough from that. Poetry is not a healing lotion, an emotional massage, a kind of linguistic aromatherapy. Neither is it a blueprint, nor an instruction manual, nor a billboard. There is no universal Poetry, anyway, only poetries and poetics, and the streaming, intertwining histories to which they belong. There is room, indeed necessity, for both Neruda and César Valléjo, for Pier Paolo Pasolini and Alfonsina Storni, for both Ezra Pound and Nelly Sachs. Poetries are no more pure and simple than human histories are pure and simple. And there are colonised poetics and resilient poetics, transmissions across frontiers not easily traced.

“It was long ago in my life as a simple reporter that I decided that facts must never get in the way of truth.”

James Cameron (journalist) (1911–1985) British journalist

The Encarta Book of Quotations (2000), p. 173 http://books.google.com/books?id=Af84fBmzmVYC&q=%22It+was+long+ago+in+my+life+as+a+simple+reporter+that+I+decided+that+facts+must+never+get+in+the+way+of+truth%22&pg=PA173#v=onepage
Attributed

Emily Dickinson photo

“Truth is so rare, it is delightful to tell it.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet
Perry Anderson photo

“Values – ethical, epistemological, aesthetic – figure in the contests over the field, but they do not define it. Intellectuals are judged not by their morals, but by the quality of their ideas, which are rarely reducible to simple verdicts of truth or falsity, if only because banalities are by definition accurate.”

Perry Anderson (1938) British historian

Source: Spectrum: From Right to Left in the World of Ideas (2005), Ch 3. "Dreams of Central Europe, Timothy Garton Ash" (1999), p. 76

Anish Kapoor photo

“It’s magnificent, it’s really great. It is quite simple and quite a pure piece.”

Anish Kapoor (1954) British contemporary artist of Indian birth

Israeli sky in Anish’s steel- India-born artist sculpts landmark symbol for museum

Margaret Drabble photo

“Perhaps the rare and simple pleasure of being seen for what one is compensates for the misery of being it.”

Margaret Drabble book A Summer Bird-Cage

A Summer Bird-Cage (1963; New York: William Morrow, 1964) p. 120

Walter Raleigh photo

“Historians desiring to write the actions of men, ought to set down the simple truth, and not say anything for love or hatred; also to choose such an opportunity for writing as it may be lawful to think what they will, and write what they think, which is a rare happiness of the time.”

Walter Raleigh (1554–1618) English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer

Source: The Cabinet Council (published 1658), Chapter 25

“Leadership, pure and simple, is the assumption of responsibility for the pursuit of excellence in group life.”

Philip Selznick (1919–2010) American sociologist

Attributed to Selznick in: Kobi Yamada, ‎Dan Zadra, ‎Steve Potter (2003), Everyone Leads,

John of the Cross photo

“Hence the love of God in the pure and simple soul is almost continually in act.”

John of the Cross (1542–1591) Spanish mystic and Roman Catholic saint

The Sayings of Light and Love
Context: Souls will be unable to reach perfection who do not strive to be content with having nothing, in such fashion that their natural and spiritual desire is satisfied with emptiness; for this is necessary in order to reach the highest tranquility and peace of spirit. Hence the love of God in the pure and simple soul is almost continually in act.

Related topics