"Child of Europe" (1946), trans. Jan Darowski
Daylight (1953)
“There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it.”
William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist
Lectures XIV and XV, "The Value of Saintliness"
1900s, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“Which is better, truth that is a lie or the lie that is truth?”
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor
Source: The Judges
“The truth is balance, but the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.”
Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist
Review of Selected Essays by Simone Weil, The New York Review of Books (1 February 1963)
Context: The need for truth is not constant; no more than is the need for repose. An idea which is a distortion may have a greater intellectual thrust than the truth; it may better serve the needs of the spirit, which vary. The truth is balance, but the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate
" The Grandmother http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Alfred_Lord_Tennyson/14415", st. 8 (1864)
Ally Carter (1974) American writer
Source: Uncommon Criminals
“A lie is more comfortable than doubt, more useful than love, more lasting than truth.”
Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer
[The Autumn of the Patriarch, 2006 [1976], HarperCollins, 978-0-06-088286-0, 254] translated from El Ontoño del Patriarica (1975) by Gregory Rabassa
“You can’t be reluctant to give up your lie and still tell the truth.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher
Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 44e
“[A]n attractive lie is always going to be more popular than a hard truth.”
Dave Sim (1956) Canadian cartoonist, creator of Cerebus
No. 11, p. 27
Following Cerebus (2004-)
