"Science does not promise absolute truth, nor does it consider that such a thing necessarily exists. Science does not even promise that everything in the Universe is amenable to the scientific process."
(Isaac Asimov / 1920-1992)
"It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies."
(Noam Chomsky / born in 1928)
"A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets."
(Arthur C. Clarke / born in 1917)
"Therefore, philosophy does not give sense in mind happiness. It keeps in mind the only truth. However, it is very possible that the truth may be painful, may be distressing, may be destructive of happiness or makes it impossible. Religion, unlike philosophy, is under the category of the useful one. It promises happiness and says what it is necessary to do and what it is necessary to be to deserve or to obtain it. Consequently, illusion is more important than truth if it gets happiness."
(Marcel Conche, French philosopher / born in 1922 / Sense of Philosophy)
"False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for everyone takes a salutory pleasure in proving their falseness; and when this is done, one path toward errors is closed and the road to truth is often at the same time opened."
(Charles Darwin / 1809-1882 / The Descent of Man / 1871)
"To those searching for truth -- not the truth of dogma and darkness but the truth brought by reason, search, examination, and inquiry, discipline is required. For faith, as well intentioned as it may be, must be built on facts, not fiction -- faith in fiction is a damnable false hope."
(Thomas Edison / 1847-1931)
"My uniform experience has convinced me that there is no other God than True."
(Mahatma Gandhi / 1869-1948)
"Believe those who seek the truth, doubt those who find it; doubt all, but do not doubt yourself."
(André Gide / 1869-1951 / Journal 1939-1949)
"Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong."
(Thomas Jefferson / 1743-1826)
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
(Friedrich Nietzsche / 1844-1900 / Human, all too Human / 1878-1879)
"Mystical explanations are considered deep. The truth is that they are not even superficial."
(Friedrich Nietzsche / 1844-1900 / The Gay Science / 1882)
"It is so little true that martyrs offer any support to the truth of a cause that I am inclined to deny that any martyr has ever had anything to do with the truth at all."
(Friedrich Nietzsche / 1844-1900 / The Antichrist / 1888)
"So long as the priest, that professional negator, slanderer and poisoner of life, is regarded as a superior type of human being, there cannot be any answer to the question: What is Truth?"
(Friedrich Nietzsche / 1844-1900 / The Antichrist / 1888)
"Faith: not wanting to know what is true."
(Friedrich Nietzsche / 1844-1900)
"All great truths begin as blasphemies."
(George Bernard Shaw / 1856-1950 / Annajanska)
"Faith is believing something you know ain't true."
(Mark Twain / 1835-1910 / Following the Equator / 1897)
"The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost their power of reasoning."
(Voltaire / 1694-1778 / Philosophical Dictionary, 1764)
"I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom."
(Voltaire / 1694-1778 / Letter to d'Alembert / August 20, 1770)