“It’s a time when men and women come to know what they truly are. A time of purging.” I’d been looking at the ceiling as he spoke. At his final words, I turned to face him in surprise. “Is that what the Catholics mean by purgatory?” “In essence.” He nodded. “A period during which each soul is cleansed by a self-imposed recognition of past deeds—and misdeeds.”
“Human beings are not reasonable creatures. Instead of being ruled by logic, we are ruled by emotions. The world would be a happier place if the opposite were true.”
“He’s much too smart to fall for this, but he wants it to be true. He wants it to be true more than he wants the truth. The smile that breaks across his face is cautious, but so beautiful that I can’t look away. I would lie to him again for that smile.”
“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted.”
“It was a once in a lifetime thing. I hate to think it but I bet it’s true. It’s too bad for us that our once in a lifetime happened when were too young to handle it.”
“For if anyone says that all things are true then he is making even the negation of his own claim true, so that his own statement in turn is not true . . . while if anyone says that all things are false, then he is making his own claim to be false.”
“The Beautiful exists just as little as the True. In every case it is a question of the conditions of preservation of a certain type of man: thus the herd-man will experience the value feeling of the True in different things than will the Overman.”
“There is recompense for suffering. A principle beyond selfishness is at work in the cosmos. All will be well. I do not know whether any of this is true. I am certain that the scientific community does not know that it is false.”
“In those hours he is awake and prowling through the building, he sometimes feels he is a demon who has disguised himself as a human, and only at night is it safe to shed the costume he must wear by daylight, and indulge his true nature.”
My dear,
Is it true that your mind is sometimes like a battering
Ram
Running all through the city,
Shouting so madly inside and out
About the ten thousand things
That do not matter?”
“Good soldiers know that if they don’t recognize who their enemy is, they are destined to lose the war. That is also true for those of us who battle in God’s army.”
″ ‘Make ups are all very well,’ said Papa, ‘as long as people don’t try to make you believe they are true. When they do that, it seems to me it comes too near the edge of falsehood to be very safe or pleasant.’ ”
“When I was young I told a tale of buried gold, and men from leagues around dug in the woods. I dug myself. But why? I thought the tale of treasure might be true.”
The Whole Duty of Children
A child should always say what’s true
And speak when he is spoken to,
And behave mannerly at table;
At least as far as he is able.
“She plucked off a berry. She started to gnaw it. It tasted just awful. Almost made her sick. But she wanted that tail, so she swallowed it quick. Then she felt something happen! She felt a small twitch as if she’d been tapped, down behind, by a switch. And Gertrude looked ‘round. And she cheered! It was true! Two feathers! Exactly like Lolla-Lee-Lou!”