
“But no. There is a difference between the truth and what we wish were true.”
Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things
As Harris K. Telemacher in "L.A. Story" (1991)
“But no. There is a difference between the truth and what we wish were true.”
Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things
Context: The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true. We have a method, and that method helps us to reach not absolute truth, only asymptotic approaches to the truth — never there, just closer and closer, always finding vast new oceans of undiscovered possibilities. Cleverly designed experiments are the key.
“Don't you wish that we could forget that kiss
And see this for what it is
That we're not in love”
"Let It Die"
Let It Die (2004)
Source: The Instructions
“Our minds sometimes see what our hearts wish were true.”
Source: Angels & Demons
“What we need is not truths that serve us but a truth we may serve.”
Source: Degrees of Knowledge (1932, Notre Dame Translation), p. 4.
E 10
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook E (1775 - 1776)
Source: A Way to Be Free: The Autobiography of Robert LeFevre, Volume I, (1999), p. 19
(29th March 1823) Song - What was our parting ?—one wild kiss,
The London Literary Gazette, 1823