Relative Truth Quotes

We know today that there is no such thing as absolute truth, that everything is relative, that everything is dependent on the conditions of time and place; but precisely for that reason, we should be very cautious in judging the "ignorance" of various historical periods. Their ignorance, to the extent that it is manifested in their characteristic social movements, aspirations and ideals, is also relative. ~ Georgi Plekhanov

He had two lives: one, open, seen and known by all who cared to know, full of relative truth and of relative falsehood, exactly like the lives of his friends and acquaintances; and another life running its course in secret. And through some strange, perhaps accidental, conjunction of circumstances, everything that was essential, of interest and of value to him, everything in which he was sincere and did not deceive himself, everything that made the kernel of his life, was hidden from other people. ~ Anton Chekhov

Relativism reduces every element of absoluteness to relativity while making a completely illogical exception in favor of this reduction itself. Fundamentally it consists in propounding the claim that there is no truth as if this were truth or in declaring it to be absolutely true that there is nothing but the relatively true; one might just as well say that there is no language or write that there is no writing. In short, every idea is reduced to a relativity of some sort, whether psychological, historical, or social; but the assertion nullifies itself by the fact that it too presents itself as a psychological, historical, or social relativity. The assertion nullifies itself if it is true and by nullifying itself logically proves thereby that it is false; its initial absurdity lies in the implicit claim to be unique in escaping, as if by enchantment, from a relativity that is declared to be the only possibility. ~ Frithjof Schuon

God had said to listen to what five people tell you and don't hold on to your own opinion. The person who holds on to his opinion is isolated. If you insist upon it, it will harm you as well as others. This true-false is a relative truth; it is a mundane [worldly] truth. One should not insist upon it. ~ Dada Bhagwan

The existence of relative truth does not prove the non-existence of universal truth. ~ Idries Shah

However, ana al-haqq as it stands has raised a few literary questions as well and, within the tradition of mystic poetry, the attitude preserved in Hallaj's expression has given rise to mixed reactions regarding its content. It is held that it is an exaggeration of subjective experience, and ana - the personal "I" - shows leanings toward megalomania and egotism. It is the personal "I" which overshadows al-haqq, and thereby invites total attention to itself. In fact, the personal "I" absorbs al-haqq, and reaches out to the romantic cult of the egostistical sublime. In this context, the truth tends to become subjective and, therefore, relative, and in its social implications it shows the possibility of numerous diversions. Extreme individualism, in contrast to institutionalism, is also held to be related to ana al-haqq. The personal "I" is supposed to be potentionally explosive and destructive for values of the Establishment. A.J. Arberry has summed up the position by saying that Hallaj had dared to declare that his direct awareness of God was for him a clearer proof than both revelation and reason. ~ Gilani Kamran

What makes us most human is not whether we are or are not biologically driven and determined beings; but, rather, how we respond to this relative truth. The conscious choices we make in related to the dynamic, psychobiological forces of the daimonic define our humanity. ~ Stephen A. Diamond

Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

Human love has little regard for the truth. It makes the truth relative, since nothing, not even the truth, must come between it and the beloved person. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The truth that could be extracted from words was such a fluctuating, relative truth. ~ Henry Handel Richardson

We are the Western World. We read, see, think. Left. To. Right. We can't help it.
..The problem with Top to Bottom is that it's unAmerican. We want to begin in the depths and climb our way upward. But our typographic system argues against this and wins, and images follow suit.
..What you have to be careful to remember about Big and Small, is that they can extend to infinity in either direction. Consider: Big can always be bigger and Small smaller. The atom is the Universe and vice versa. And they're both identical.
..Left to Right, Top to Bottom, Big and Small; on a two-dimensional plane, all of these tools rely on a relative truth. Now we come to In Front Of and In Back of, which for us are big, fat lies. Very useful though, and the first of many at your disposal. ~ Chip Kidd

We never stop to consider that our beliefs are only a relative truth that's always going to be distorted by all the knowledge we have stored in our memory. ~ Don Miguel Ruiz

The Bible's been attacked. What is truth? It's relative. ~ Todd Burpo

Human thought by its nature is capable of giving, and does give, absolute truth, which is compounded of a sum-total of relative truths. ~ Vladimir Lenin

When you put relative and absolute truth together and they become one unit, it becomes possible to make things workable. You are not too much on the side of absolute truth, or you would become too theoretical. You are not too much on the side of relative truth, or you would become too precise. When you put them together, you realize that there is no problem. ~ Chogyam Trungpa

If all meaning were relative, then the meanings of the terms in the proposition "All meaning is relative" would be relative. Therefore the proposition "All meaning is relative" destroys itself. It is nothing but an evasion of reality. That seems a high price to pay, even for the privilege of killing people. ~ J. Budziszewski

It is not given to man to know the whole Truth. His duty lies in living up to the truth as he sees it, and in doing so, to resort to the purest means, i.e., to non-violence. God alone knows absolute truth. Therefore, I have often said, Truth is God. It follows that man, a finite being, cannot know absolute truth. Nobody in this world possesses absolute truth. This is God's attribute alone. Relative truth is all we know. Therefore, we can only follow the truth as we see it. Such pursuit of truth cannot lead anyone astray. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Then she said that truth was all relative. Truth often came down to what is the most believable version of events. ~ Sarah Pinborough

There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative. ~ Allan Bloom

Here's the way to destroy your life in sixty seconds or less; convince yourself that something is 'right' simply because you want it to be, and then go act on it. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

The truth of the matter is, I will miss being the commander in chief of such a fabulous group of men and women
those who wear the uniform of the United States military. ~ George W. Bush

Poverty is relative, and the lack of food and of the necessities of life is not necessarily a hardship. Spiritual and social ostracism, the invasion of your privacy, are what constitute the pain of poverty. ~ Alice Foote MacDougall

The Bible is not a book for the faint of heart
it is a book full of all the greed and glory and violence and tenderness and sex and betrayal that benefits mankind. It is not the collection of pretty little anecdotes mouthed by pious little church mice
it does not so much nibble at our shoe leather as it cuts to the heart and splits the marrow from the bone. It does not give us answers fitted to our small-minded questions, but truth that goes beyond what we even know to ask. ~ Rich Mullins

My great longing is to learn to make those very incorrectnesses, those deviations, remodellings, changes of reality, so that they may become, yes, untruth if you like - but more true than the literal truth. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

The Satanic Jews and their Allies fear being exposed and that is the role of the Messiah, to reveal the Man of Sin. When He comes, He has to expose those forces, those wicked ones that have caused the blood shedding and the mischief that's going on in the world. So the moment they saw a Black man standing who was not afraid to tell the truth of them, given to him by the Messiah, they had to come against him. And they will continue to do that because their survival is at stake. ~ Louis Farrakhan

If a principle exists it must be immutable, for that is what a principle is - a truth standing apart from the mood of the times. ~ Jeff Cooper

You can say the Jesus Prayer from now till doomsday, but if you don't realize that the only thing that counts in the religious life is detachment, I don't see how you ever move an inch. Detachment, buddy, and only detachment. Desirelessness. 'Cessations from all hankerings.' It's this business of desiring, if you want to know the goddam truth, that makes an actor in the first place. Why're you making me tell you things you already know? Somewhere along the line - in one damn incarnation or another, if you like - you not only had a hankering to be an actor or an actress but to be a good one. You're stuck with it now. You can't just walk out on the results of your own hankerings. Cause and effect, buddy, cause and effect. The only thing you can do now, the only religious thing you can do, is act. Act for God, if you want to - be God's actress, if you want to. What could be prettier? ~ J.D. Salinger

Everybody's got something. In the end, what choice does one really have but to understand that truth, to really take it in, and then shop for groceries, get a haircut, do one's work; get on with the business of one's life.
That's the hope, anyway. ~ David Rakoff

On writer's block: The word block suggests that you are constipated or stuck, when the truth is that you're empty. ~ Anne Lamott

What do you want?' Maura asked. 'Not out of college. Out of life.'
Blue swallowed the truth once, because she was ready to move from crisis to crying to solutions and stability. Then she said the truth slowly and carefully, so that it would be manageable. 'What I always wanted. To see the world. To make it better. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

It is better to lose and gain the love, than win and lose the love. ~ Debasish Mridha

Never run from the truth, it will always overtake you. ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

Upon my word, I think the truth is the hardest missile one can be pelted with. ~ George Eliot

There is indeed a great deal of futility amongst the human race which we do not commonly see, for it all forms part of our illusion; but let a man be much annoyed by something that others do, so that he is separated from them and has to leave them, and looks back at what they are doing, and he'll see at once all manner of whimsical absurdities that he had not noticed before; and Ramon Alonzo in the shade of his oak, waiting for the noon to go by, grew very contemptuous of the attitude that the world took up towards shadows. ~ Lord Dunsany

Truth be told, I'm not an easy man. I can be an entertaining one, though it's been my experience that most people don't want to be entertained. They want to be comforted. And, of course, my idea of entertaining might not be yours. I'm in complete agreement with all those people who say, regarding movies, 'I just want to be entertained.' This populist position is much derided by my academic colleagues as simpleminded and unsophisticated, evidence of questionable analytical and critical acuity. But I agree with the premise, and I too just want to be entertained. That I am almost never entertained by what entertains other people who just want to be entertained doesn't make us philosophically incompatible. It just means that we shouldn't go to movies together. ~ Richard Russo

We are motivated more by aversion to the unpleasant than by a will toward truth, freedom, or healing. We are constantly attempting to escape our life, to avoid rather than enter our pain we, and we wonder why it is so difficult to be fully alive. (43) ~ Stephen Levine

Sometimes forever doesn't happen. And that's something we all occasionally forget. ~ Dominic Riccitello

She had performed as a shape-shifter with no sense of identity. ~ Laura Gentile

Is not anyone with any degree of mental honesty conscious of telling lies all day long, both in talking and writing, simply because lies will fall into artistic shape when truth will not? ~ George Orwell

The truth is exactly that which can't be got into words. We are forced to lie, a little or, if we are inferior, much. ~ Storm Jameson

Love is the flower of life but happiness is the fragrance of that flower. ~ Debasish Mridha

When you are there for others, everybody will be there for you. ~ Debasish Mridha

I knew I had to keep him to myself, as I'd slowly begun to keep everything. We had secrets now, truths and half-truths, that kept her always at arm's length, behind a closed door, miles away. ~ Sarah Dessen

Yet, what the phenomenon is and how we think of it are two different things. ~ Elizabeth F. Howell

But he had gained a perspective of thought in which every extreme was seen as a half-truth, ~ Will Durant

Even if you are a loser today, it doesn't mean that you cannot change yourself ~ Sunday Adelaja

Only poets and philosophers see the world as it really is, for only to them is it given to live without illusions. To see clearly is to not act. ~ Fernando Pessoa

Peace is a fresh flower. ~ Debasish Mridha

Justice is the handmaiden of truth, and when truth dies, justice is buried with it. ~ Ravi Zacharias

Some men believe a girl squirting under their touch is a sign of their own sex appeal and machismo. It seems a shame to pee on their parade, but the truth is, the methodical throb of a vibrator in the right place and in the right hands – even your own hand – achieves more consistent results. ~ Chloe Thurlow

Tushin did not tell him that there were no covering troops, though that was the plain truth. He was afraid to let down another officer that way and silently, with fixed eyes, looked straight into Bagration's face, as a confused student looks into his examiner's eyes. ~ Leo Tolstoy

So many things which once had distressed or revolted him - the speeches and pronouncements of the learned, their assertions and their prohibitions, their refusal to allow the universe to move - all seemed to him now merely ridiculous, non-existent, compared with the majestic reality, the flood of energy, which now revealed itself to him: omnipresent, unalterable in its truth, relentless in its development, untouchable in its serenity, maternal and unfailing in its protectiveness. ~ Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

We have been a little insane about the truth. We have had an obsession. ~ Wallace Stevens

Truth is the best defense. ~ Ward Churchill

What you fear to do, do it first. ~ Debasish Mridha

A person with a biblical worldview experiences, interprets, and response to reality in light of the Bible's principles. What Scripture teaches is the primary grid for making decisions and interacting with the world. For the purposes of our research, we investigate a biblical worldview based on eight elements. A person with a biblical worldview believes that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life, God is the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe and he still rules it today, salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned, Satan is real, a Christian has a responsibility to share his or her faith in Christ with other people, the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches, unchanging moral truth exists, and such moral truth is defined by the Bible.

In our research, we have found that people who embraced these eight components we have a substantially different faith from other Americans – indeed, from other believers. ~ David Kinnaman

I was born into the world as the king of truth for the salvation of the world. ~ Buddha

It's only fashion that has said the pendulum has swung from extreme skepticism about extraterrestrial life to extreme credulity. The truth is somewhere in between. ~ Paul Davies

As the prevailing voices in the public spotlight are predominantly men, stepping into the spotlight with the truth of who you are as a woman is political change. ~ Tabby Biddle

Whatever the truth is, I don't see how it will help me get food on the table. ~ Suzanne Collins

Truth had a way of coming out on top - and it was just as well for everybody that it did. If there ever came a day when truth was so soundly defeated that it never emerged, but sank, instead, under the sheer volume of untruth that the world produced, then that would be a sad day for Botswana, and for the people who lived in Botswana. It would be a sad day for the whole world, that day. ~ Alexander McCall Smith

I never once made a discovery ... I speak without exaggeration that I have constructed three thousand different theories in connection with the electric light ... Yet in only two cases did my experiments prove the truth of my theory. ~ Thomas A. Edison

If the truth was equal to the lie, and our love was equal to our hatred, we would become absolutely nil persons. ~ Marieta Maglas- Eschatological Regression

When a soul has advanced so far on the spiritual road as to be lost to all the natural methods of communing with God; when it seeks Him no longer by meditation, images, impressions, nor by any other created ways, or representations of sense, but only by rising above them all, in the joyful communion with Him by faith and love, then it may be said to have found God of a truth, because it has truly lost itself as to all that is not God, and also as to its own self. ~ John Of The Cross

She was here. For the first time he was unsure of what to say. General Carter had led men in battle, planned strategies effecting tens of thousands of men, yet one woman left him speechless.
Grace Willows General's Dawn
Coming soon to Amazo ~ Grace Willows

According to Bela Szabados, it can be dangerous to ignore philosophers' personalities because philosophizing is a personal interpretation of truth. ~ Skye Cleary

The will to truth is enshrined in the mind. It is undeniable, inescapable, mutable only if one's humanity itself is rejected, itself muted. Yet the form of this truth, whether it be elaborate, simple, exclusive and regulatory or comprehensive and positive ... this is a matter of aesthetics, taste ...
... It is all inherently meaningless, the puzzle just as much as the pieces themselves, ephemeral. Yet more than this it is concrete, eternal, heavy and inescapable, a preponderous amalgam of things small and large, the actuality of which is imminent, the meaning of which is too great to acknowledge, let alone comprehend.
So we tell stories. We read stories, write them, consider them and like them, or not. Simply ways, simple ways, to limit the All to that which can be understood. ~ Jeffrey Panzer