“When people reject a truth or an untruth it is not because it is a truth or an untruth that they reject it.
No, if it isn't in accord with their beliefs in the first place they simply say, "Nothing doing," and refuse to inspect it.”

H 7
Variant translation: The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted.
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook H (1784-1788)

Pearls of Wisdom

"The Prevention of Literature" (1946)
Context: The enemies of intellectual liberty always try to present their case as a plea for discipline versus individualism. The issue truth-versus-untruth is as far as possible kept in the background. Although the point of emphasis may vary, the writer who refuses to sell his opinions is always branded as a mere egoist. He is accused, that is, either of wanting to shut himself up in an ivory tower, or of making an exhibitionist display of his own personality, or of resisting the inevitable current of history in an attempt to cling to unjustified privileges.

Source: 1984

Harijan (13 July 1947) p. 232
1940s

Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 41e

Source: Personal Destinies: A Philosophy of Ethical Individualism (1976), p. 8

Ibn Shu’ba al-Harrani, Tuhaf al-'Uqul, p. 408.
Religious Wisdom

Source: The Spiritual Life (1947), p. 290