“The first wrote, wine is the strongest. The second wrote, the king is strongest. The third wrote, women are strongest: but above all things, truth beareth away the victory.”
This is an extract from 1 Esdras 3 which can be found in the Apocrypha (the Greek version of the Biblical Old Testament). In this extract, the truth is given the highest honour, as it ought to be given. Well, that is my opinion, but what do other influential people say about truth? At first, Aristotle said that even though Plato (his teacher and friend) was dear to him, dearer still was the truth. Pope John Paul the 2nd noted that truth must be the foundation stone, the cement to solidify the entire social edifice. Very true, indeed, if only this could be attained, but the British philosopher Iris Murdoch is of the opinion that this cannot be attained.
She is of the opinion that you cannot have both the truth and what you call civilisation. Is there any truth in her opinion? I have an inclination not to agree fully. In any case, what is true, is that truth is painful to many. Lin Yutang made this clear by saying that truth is always disturbing and painful, and he likens it to the sudden impact of light on the eye. However, after the mental eye is adjusted to the new light of truth, it will no longer have a bad effect on the experiencer.
Living a life of truth may at first be a painful exercise, but that pain won’t last. Nadine Gordimer said that truth isn’t always something beautiful, but the hunger for it is. I will end with a contribution from the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. He said that in order to aspire to the truth, one must undress oneself inwardly, strip oneself of all one’s inward thoughts, conceptions, selfishness etc. before one is sufficiently naked enough to entertain truth. So, get naked and dress yourself anew with the truth.
Embrace truth, it will surely set you free
or continue living a lie...
truth is the one holding the key
so come and give truth a try…
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