Kafka on truth and success

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1. DICKERSON3870 says:

   May 15, 2010 at 2:45 pm

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   “God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please – you can never have both.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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2. DICKERSON3870 says:

   May 15, 2010 at 3:15 pm

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   BUDDHA: Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true. [paraphrased]
   MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
   CLARENCE DARROW: Chase after the truth like all hell and you’ll free yourself, even though you never touch its coattails.
   MAX PLANCK: It is not the possession of truth, but the success which attends the seeking after it, that enriches the seeker and brings happiness to him.
   BLAISE PASCAL: There are truths on this side of the Pyranees, which are falsehoods on the other.
   GEORGE BERNARD SHAW: My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world.
   FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE: And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.
   MARK TWAIN:
   ~ A historian who would convey the truth must lie. Often he must enlarge the truth by diameters, otherwise his reader would not be able to see it.
   ~ Every generalization is dangerous, especially this one.
   ~ The old saw says, “Let a sleeping dog lie.” Right. Still, when there is much at stake it is better to get a newspaper to do it. [My personal favourite! lol - JLD]
   ~ If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.
   ~ Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing the matter with this, except that it ain’t so.
   (SOURCE) Truth Quotes – link to wisdomquotes.com

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3. Eva Smagacz says:

   May 15, 2010 at 6:14 pm

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   “truth produces no success; truth only shatters what is shattered”.

   Discuss

   This statement is also informative when turned round:
   “Lie produces success. Lie holds together that which is shattered”.
   Success (inevitably?) includes some bending of the truth varying between pretence to outright lies – whether its sales, marketing, applying for a job or government grant, lobbying or being voted to the parliament. Partial truths are most potent in replacing truths (think slogans).
   White lies are designed to be a lubricant of social interactions. Small lies are harmless. Medium lies are corrupting. Frequency with which we use lies, and not the content of the lies is a better indicator of our moral compass. Omissions are lies. Omissions are the way we are conditioned to hide parts of the truth until truth is completely left out of the picture. Telling the truth has often social consequences and this is why truth tellers are admired and loathed in equal measures.
   Truth exposes pretence, lay bare deception and debunks lies. Broken things are shown to be broken, ugly things are at last seen as ugly and ethnic cleansing is finally acknowledged to have nothing to do with love of peace and security.

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4. MHughes976 says:

   May 16, 2010 at 3:11 pm

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   I’d say that a lie is an attempt to change the world, bringing it and other people a little more under the liar’s control, ie to change it according to a bad principle.
   The pure truth, told for its own sake, leaves the world absolutely as it is. For this reason, truth may seem ineffectual but by contrast with the lie it (famously) sets us free from the liar’s control and so allows us, if we take the opportunity, to change the world according a good principle.

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5. LanceThruster says:

   May 16, 2010 at 4:09 pm

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   When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do. ~ William Blake

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