I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.

The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil.

I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.

All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.

Falsehood is cowardice, the truth courage.

The passive aggressive arguer comes armed with tricky tactics. They cannot take the risk that they might be wrong: their self-esteem is too intertwined with their opinions. It is more important to affirm their rightness, and sense of superiority, than to arrive at the truth.

The great quest of life has always been to discover truth.

It’s better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.

It vexes me when they would constrain science by the authority of the Scriptures, and yet do not consider themselves bound to answer reason and experiment.

Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.

Know then this truth, enough for man to know virtue alone is happiness below.

To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!

With compassion you can die for other people, like the mother who can die for her child. You have the courage to say it because you are not afraid of losing anything, because you know that understanding and love is the foundation of happiness. But if you have fear of losing your status, your position, you will not have the courage to do it.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

Half a truth is better than no politics.

Lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance.

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin‘ away.

No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.

Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual’s own reason and critical analysis.

Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.

There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie.

Whoever won’t fight when the President calls him, deserves to be kicked back in his hole and kept there.

If you can’t read, the only thing you can do is enjoy the pictures, not the whole story. Reading is the key to knowledge. Knowledge is the key to understanding. So read on, young man! Read on, young lady!

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.

Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.

The truth is often terrifying, which I think is one of the motifs of Larry and Andrew’s cinema. The cost of knowledge is an important theme. In the second and third films, they explore the consequences of Neo’s choice to know the truth. It’s a beautiful, beautiful story.

The natural desire of good men is knowledge.

There’s just some magic in truth and honesty and openness.

No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.

A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.

Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.

Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.

We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.

The lawyer’s truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.

In some sort of crude sense, which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.

I don’t know how to function without music. When I’m not making it, I’m listening to it. It gives me courage and takes care of my mind.

In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

Courage – you develop courage by doing small things like just as if you wouldn’t want to pick up a 100-pound weight without preparing yourself.

As long as the people don’t fear the truth, there is hope. For once they fear it, the one who tells it doesn’t stand a chance. And today, truth is still beautiful… but so frightening.

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

Truth is everybody is going to hurt you: you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

One man that has a mind and knows it can always beat ten men who haven’t and don’t.

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.

What we have to do, what at any rate it is our duty to do, is to revive the old art of Lying.

The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth.

The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.

Never was it given to mortal man – To lie so boldly as we women can.

Fortune befriends the bold.

I’m not frightened of appearing vulnerable.

It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.

If the Christian is a restorationist, a legalist, if he wants everything clear and safe, then he will find nothing. Tradition and memory of the past must help us to have the courage to open up new areas to God.