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Such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks,—and all it wants,—is the liberty of appearing.
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“Such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks,—and all it wants,—is the liberty of appearing.”

Thomas Paine

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Source
Rights of Man
Date
1791–1792
Meaning

Meaning of “Such is the irresistible nature of truth, that…”

Paine links truth with open expression, arguing that its central requirement is the opportunity to be heard rather than protection from scrutiny.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Rights of Man; represented in the public-domain Conway edition and kept in the work’s polemical political context.

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CommunicationCourage Quotes About Acting Despite FearDeepFreedomHonestyMindPhilosophyShortThinking Quotes About Reasoning, Reflection & JudgmentThought-Provoking Quotes That Invite ReflectionTruth
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Nothing is so firmly believed, as what we least know.
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“Nothing is so firmly believed, as what we least know.”

Michel de Montaigne · Essays of Montaigne — Book I · 1580
Meaning & context

Certainty can be strongest where understanding is weakest, so confidence by itself is poor evidence that a belief has been examined well.

Source details

Essays of Montaigne, Book I, Chapter XXXI, ‘That a Man Is Soberly to Judge of the Divine Ordinances,’ Charles Cotton translation edited by William Carew Hazlitt (1877); Project Gutenberg Volume 06 #3586 / Complete Essays #3600. The sentence appears in Montaigne’s skeptical warning about confidence concerning unknown things and speculative claims about divine purposes.

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Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
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“Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.”

Friedrich Nietzsche · Human, All-Too-Human · 1909
Meaning & context

Nietzsche warns that fixed certainty can block revision more effectively than an obvious falsehood because conviction can make contrary evidence harder to examine.

Source details

Human, All-Too-Human, Part I, aphorism 483, “The Enemies of Truth”; Helen Zimmern translation, 1909 edition.

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There is no pre-established harmony between the promotion of truth and the welfare of mankind.
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“There is no pre-established harmony between the promotion of truth and the welfare of mankind.”

Friedrich Nietzsche · Human, All-Too-Human · 1909
Meaning & context

Nietzsche rejects the comforting assumption that discovering truth must always coincide with human comfort or advantage.

Source details

Human, All-Too-Human, Part I, aphorism 517, “A Fundamental Insight”; Helen Zimmern translation.

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To define is to limit.
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“To define is to limit.”

Oscar Wilde · The Picture of Dorian Gray — 1891 edition · 1891
Voice: Fictional character · Lord Henry Wotton
Meaning & context

Definitions clarify ideas but can also narrow them, especially when a label is treated as the complete reality of a person or experience.

Source details

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 edition, Chapter 17; Lord Henry answers the Duchess of Monmouth’s question “What are you?” with “To define is to limit.”

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Truth happens to an idea.
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“Truth happens to an idea.”

William James · Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking · 1907
Meaning & context

The compact formulation summarizes James’s pragmatic account in which an idea’s truth is connected with processes of verification and validation rather than treated only as a static label.

Source details

Pragmatism, Lecture VI, “Pragmatism’s Conception of Truth”; Project Gutenberg #5116. Capitalization has been normalized from “Truth HAPPENS to an idea”; the surrounding passage explains verification and validation.

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