“A deception that elevates us is dearer than a host of low truths.”
Marina Tsvetaeva (1892–1941) Russian poet and writer
Тьмы низких истин нам дороже нас возвышающий обман.
Pushkin and Pugachev (1937).
“The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.”
The Hero ll. 64-65, quoted in Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov
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Aleksandr Pushkin33
Russian poet 1799–1837Related quotes
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …
What Can We Expect of the Moon?" in The American Legion Magazine, March 1965
General sources
“It is better to live ten years at a thousand [miles per hour] than a thousand years at a ten”
Lobão (1957) Brazilian musician
From the lyrics of his song Vida Louca, Vida (Life, Crazy Life)
“The painful truth is that while we might have the illusion, none of us are free.”
Laura Anne Gilman book Flesh and Fire
Source: Flesh and Fire (2009), p. 304
Arthur Conan Doyle book The Stark Munro Letters
The Stark Munro Letters (1894)
Context: The more we progress the more we tend to progress. We advance not in arithmetical but in geometrical progression. We draw compound interest on the whole capital of knowledge and virtue which has been accumulated since the dawning of time. Some eighty thousand years are supposed to have existed between paleolithic and neolithic man. Yet in all that time he only learned to grind his flint stones instead of chipping them. But within our father's lives what changes have there not been? The railway and the telegraph, chloroform and applied electricity. Ten years now go further than a thousand then, not so much on account of our finer intellects as because the light we have shows us the way to more. Primeval man stumbled along with peering eyes, and slow, uncertain footsteps. Now we walk briskly towards our unknown goal.
“Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.”
Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas.
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
A similar statement was attributed to Aristotle in antiquityː ""Φίλος μὲν Σωκράτης, ἀλλὰ φιλτέρα ἀλήθεια."" [""Socrates is a friend, but truth is a greater.""] — Ammonius Hermiae, Life of Aristotle (as translated in Dictionary of Quotations http://archive.org/details/dictionaryquota02harbgoog (1906) by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 527). The variant mentioned above may possibly be derived from a reduction of a statement known to have been made by Isaac Newton, who at the head of notes he titled Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae (Certain Philosophical Questions) wrote in Latin: ""Amicus Plato— amicus Aristoteles— magis amica veritas"" which translates to: ""Plato is my friend— Aristotle is my friend— but my greatest friend is truth."" (c. 1664)<br>Another possible origin of the ""dear is Plato"" statement is in the Nicomachean Ethics; the Ross translation (of 1096a.11–1096a.16) provides: ""We had perhaps better consider the universal good and discuss thoroughly what is meant by it, although such an inquiry is made an uphill one by the fact that the Forms have been introduced by friends of our own. Yet it would perhaps be thought to be better, indeed to be our duty, for the sake of maintaining the truth even to destroy what touches us closely, especially as we are philosophers; for, while both are dear, piety requires us to honour truth above our friends.""<br>Note that the last clause, when quoted by itself loses the connection to ""the friends"" who introduced ""the Forms"", Plato above all. Therefore the misattribution could be the result of the ""quote"" actually being a paraphrase which identifies Plato where Aristotle only alludes to him circumspectly.<br>According to the notes in Plato: Republic Book X, edited by John Ferguson, p. 71, «the familiar 'amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas' is found in Cervantes' Don Quixote II 8 and cannot be traced further back. Cf. Roger Bacon Op. mai. I vii, '<i>amicus est Socrates, magister meus, sed magis est amica veritas</i>'. For the opposite view, see Cicero, T.D. I 17,39, '<i>errare mehercule malo cum Platone . . . quam cum istis vera sentire</i>'.» <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Variant: Plato is my friend, but the truth is more my friend.
Edward Bellamy (1850–1898) American author and socialist
Source: Looking Backward, 2000-1887 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25439 (1888), Ch. 21.
Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)
Speech in Cleveland http://books.google.com/books?id=o3j10P6YFZIC&pg=PA1090&dq=%22nation's+honor+is+dearer+than+the+nation's+comfort%22 (January 1916) <br class="br">1910s
Christian Friedrich Hebbel (1813–1863) German poet and dramatist
"Epigrams" in Sämtliche Werke, volume 6, page 365
Original: (de) Was du teurer bezahlst, die Lüge oder die Wahrheit?
Jene kostet dein Ich, diese doch höchstens dein Glück.
Dalton Trumbo book Johnny Got His Gun
Johnny Got His Gun (1938)
Context: Put the guns into our hands and we will use them. Give us the slogans and we will turn them into realities. Sing the battle hymns and we will take them up where you left off. Not one, not ten, not ten thousand, not a million, not ten millions, not a hundred millions but a billion, two billions of us all — the people of the world. We will have the slogans and we will have the hymns and we will have the guns and we will use them and we will live. Make no mistake of it, we will live. We will be alive and we will walk and talk and eat and sing and laugh and feel and love and bear our children in tranquillity, in security, in decency, in peace. You plan the wars, you masters of men — plan the wars and point the way and we will point the gun.