Fireside Chat: On Truth
A prostitute is vastly more honorable than someone who sells his opinion for promotion or tenure.
- Andrew Breitbart
Truth is the foundation of every great form of character. Truth is the straight line in morals, the shortest distance between a fact and the expression of it. Truth is the nature of things, the cornerstone of civilization, and the basis for higher education. To tell the truth is to express a collected consciousness, building towards higher levels of thought. Dishonesty is the hatred of society, a malum in se approach to the world. He who sacrifices ideals, truth, and character for money or position weighs his conscience in one pan of a scale against a bag of gold in another. There is a vital difference between error and untruthfulness. A man may be in error and yet live bravely by it; he who is untruthful in his life knows the truth but denies it. The man with a particular religious belief and fears discussing it is not loyal to his faith. He has nothing more than a coward’s faithfulness to his prejudices. If he were a lover of truth, he would be willing to surrender his belief for a higher faith at any moment. As it is written in the Tao te Ching:
Great truth seems false
Great skill seems clumsy
Great eloquence seems like babble
Truth is the basis of civilization, a collection of what is verifiable and par dieu. Without a collected belief, society cannot be sustained.