Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain. But you feel it. You have felt it your entire life. That there is something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s like there’s a splinter in your mind driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Do you want to know what it is? The Matrix is everything. All around us ... It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. That you are a slave, Neil. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Born into a prison you cannot smell or touch. A prison for your mind. The Matrix 1999 starring Keanu Reeves & Laurence Fishburne & Carrie-Anne Moss & Hugo Weaving & Joe Pantoliano & Gloria Foster & Marcus Chong & Julian Arahanga & Matt Doran & Belinda McClory et al, directors Andy & Lana Wachowski, Morpheus
We are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it. Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man
Humour is something that thrives between man’s aspirations and his limitations. There is more logic in humour than in anything else. Because, you see, humour is truth. Victor Borge
The history of science is rich in the example of the fruitfulness of bringing two sets of techniques, two sets of ideas, developed in separate contexts for the pursuit of new truth, into touch with one another. J Robert Oppenheimer, Science and the Common Understanding, 1954
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. Max Planck, A Scientific Autobiography, 1949
Our aim as scientists is objective truth; more truth, more interesting truth, more intelligible truth. We cannot reasonably aim at certainty. Once we realize that human knowledge is fallible, we realize also that we can never be completely certain that we have not made a mistake. Karl Popper, In Search of a Better World, 1984
Scientific truth should be presented in different forms, and should be regarded as equally scientific whether it appears in the robust form and the vivid colouring of a physical illustration, or in the tenuity and paleness of a symbolic expression. James Clerk Maxwell
Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth. Jules Verne, A Journey to the Center of the Earth
To know the history of science is to recognize the mortality of any claim to universal truth. Evelyn Fox Keller, Reflections on Gender and Science
The scientist only imposes two things, namely truth and sincerity, imposes them upon himself and upon other scientists. Erwin Schrodinger
No opinion can be heretical, but that which is not true ... Conflicting falsehoods we can comprehend; but truths can never war against each other. I affirm, therefore, that we have nothing to fear from the results of our enquiries, provided they be followed in the laborious but secure road of honest induction. In this way we may rest assured that we shall never arrive at conclusions opposed to any truth, either physical or moral, from whatever source that truth may be derived. (Reverend Adam Sedgwick, address to meeting of Geological Society of London 1831
The evolution of life, and the evolutionary origin of mankind, are scientifically established as firmly and completely as any historical event not witnessed by human observers. Any concession to anti-evolutionists, suggesting that there are scientific reasons to doubt the facticity of evolution, would be propagating a plain untruth. Theodosius Dobzhansky, letter to J Kunamoto 1972
Is love possible? Is freedom possible? Is the truth possible? Is it possible to be one’s actual self with another human being? Is it possible to be a human being any more? Is it possible to be a person? Do persons even exist? R D Laing, psychiatrist
No-one can be a great thinker who does not recognise that as a thinker it is his first duty to follow his intellect to whatever conclusion it may lead. Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think. John Stuart Mill
The very corner-stone of an education intended to form great minds, must be the recognition of the principle, that the object is to call forth the greatest possible quantity of intellectual power, and to inspire the intensest love of truth: and this without a particle of regard to the results to which the exercise of that power may lead, even though it should conduct the pupil to opinions diametrically opposite to those of his teachers. We say this, not because we think opinions unimportant, but because of the immense importance which we attach to them; for in proportion to the degree of intellectual power and love of truth which we succeed in creating, is the certainty that (whatever may happen in any one particular instance) in the aggregate of instances true opinions will be the result; and intellectual power and practical love of truth are alike impossible where the reasoner is shown his conclusions, and informed beforehand that he is expected to arrive at them. John Stuart Mill, Civilization
The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. John Stuart Mill
We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth. Carl Jung
Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger, portion of truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant. Edgar Allan Poe, The Mystery of Marie Roget
Deception is not as creative as truth. We do best in life if we look at it with clear eyes, and I think that applies to coming up to death as well. Cicely Saunders, Time 5th September 1988
The courage we need is not the courage, the fortitude, to be obedient in the service of an unjust war, to help conceal lies, to do our job by a boss who has usurped power and is acting as an outlaw government, it is the courage at last to face honestly the truth and reality of what we are doing in the world, and act responsibly to change it. Daniel Ellsberg
It takes strength and courage to admit the truth. Rick Riordan
Only at this juncture of my professional life can I state my worth as a human being. Because I see that in Art is man’s striving for the truth, for order, for the sense that has evaded him in the stupidity of existence. Only in recognition of this truth in Art can my respect be commanded. Kenneth Williams, Fantabulosa! BBC 2006
I wish to approach truth as closely as is possible, and therefore I abstract everything until I arrive at the fundamental quality of objects. Piet Mondrian
He who begins by loving Christianity better than Truth will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end by loving himself better than all. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, 1825
Monopoly: some people think they have an exclusive access to this divine truth. Francesca Stavrakopoulou
This is the mentality of a cult, in which fantastical beliefs are flaunted as proof of one’s piety. That mentality cannot coexist with an esteem for truth, and I believe it is responsible for some of the unfortunate trends in recent intellectual life. Stephen Pinker
The truth is surprisingly easy to confiscate. Boardwalk Empire s3e5: You’d be Surprised, businessman, HBO 2012
The truth is what those in power choose it to be. Boardwalk Empire s4e12: Farewell Daddy Blues, black gangsta
The only absolute truth is death. The Sopranos s2e7: D-Girl starring James Gandolfini & Lorriane Bracco & Edie Falco & Michael Imperioli & Dominic Chianese & Steven van Zandt & Tony Sirico & Robert Iler et al, Dr Melfi, HBO 2000
I always tell the truth. Even when I lie. So say goodnight to the bad guy. Scarface 1983 ***** starring Al Pacino & Michelle Pfeiffer & Steven Bauer & Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio & Robert Loggia & Miria Colon & F Murray Abraham et al, director Brian de Palma, Tony leaving restaurant
The truth doesn’t count for much in a courtroom. Kojak: The Marcus-Nelson Murders 1973 [Kojak pilot episode] starring Telly Savalas & Ned Beatty & Marjoe Gortner & Jose Ferrer & Allen Garfield & Lorraine Gary & Roger Robinson Harrriet Karr et al, director Joseph Sargent, Jake
People don’t want the truth, they just want somebody to blame. Little Murder 2011 starring Terrence Howard & Josh Lucas & Lake Bell & Sharon Leal & Peter Jason & Noah Bean & Nick Lashaway & Deborah Ann Woll & Brandon Molale et al, director Predrag Antonijevic, black bloke to hero
The truth is pain and sweat and paying bills and making love to a woman you don’t love any more. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 starring Paul Newman & Elizabeth Taylor & Burl Ives & Judith Anderson & Jack Carson & Madeleine Sherwood & Larry Gates & Vaughn Taylor et al, director Richard Brooks, Big Daddy to Brick
The search for the truth is the most important work in the whole world and the most dangerous. The Fly 1958 starring Vincent Price & David Hedison & Patricia Owens & Herbert Marshall & Kathleen Freeman & Betty Lou Gerson & Charles Herbert et al, director Kurt Neumann, Francois