
“I am a lie who always speaks the truth.”
"La Paquet Rouge" in Opéra (1925)
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 31
“I am a lie who always speaks the truth.”
"La Paquet Rouge" in Opéra (1925)
Letter from Naples, Italy to Otto Grautoff (1896); as quoted in A Gorgon's Mask: The Mother in Thomas Mann's Fiction (2005) by Lewis A. Lawson, p. 34
Context: I think of my suffering, of the problem of my suffering. What am I suffering from? From knowledge — is it going to destroy me? What am I suffering from? From sexuality — is it going to destroy me? How I hate it, this knowledge which forces even art to join it! How I hate it, this sensuality, which claims everything fine and good is its consequence and effect. Alas, it is the poison that lurks in everything fine and good! — How am I to free myself of knowledge? By religion? How am I to free myself of sexuality? By eating rice?
“I am one whose name is Valiant-for-truth. I am a pilgrim, and am going to the Celestial City.”
Part II, Ch. XI : Mr. Valiant-For-Truth <!-- Sect. 4 -->
The Pilgrim's Progress (1678), Part II
Context: There stood a man with his sword drawn, and his face all over with blood. Then said Mr. Great-Heart, Who art thou? The man made answer, saying, I am one whose name is Valiant-for-truth. I am a pilgrim, and am going to the Celestial City.
Quoted by Jan Lundius, in Does WFP Deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?, Inter Press Service News Agency, (December 2020)
“I am speaking to tell the truth, not from hatred or scorn of anyone.”
Io parlo per ver dire,
non per odio d'altrui, né per disprezzo.
Canzone 128, st. 4
Il Canzoniere (c. 1351–1353), To Laura in Life
Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and The Struggle for the American Dream, Bruce Watson. Viking-Penguin, 2005; pg. 95.
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 518.
“He knows that I am speaking the truth, for no worm ever gnawed old wood.”
Ei sa che 'l vero parlo:
ché legno vecchio mai non róse tarlo.
Canzone 360, st. 5
Il Canzoniere (c. 1351–1353), To Laura in Death
Message No. 10
Messages from Maitreya the Christ (1981)