Larry Wall Quotes

There's no one thing that is true. They're all true.

I am convinced of the validity of contradiction. There are many worlds. Each is true, at its time, in its own fashion

Nothing in its essence is one way or the other.

Consistency isn't behaving the same way all the time.

Consistency is a human word, but it certainly expresses nothing human.

The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.

The minute one utters a certainty, the opposite comes to mind.

Eclecticism - every truth is so true that any truth must be false.

There is no consensus, there is no homogeneity, there is no truth.

Nothing fortifies scepticism more than the fact that there are some who are not sceptics; if all were so, they would be wrong.

History, as well as life itself, is complicated; neither life nor history is an enterprise for those who seek simplicity and consistency.

The opposite of every truth is just as true.

If all creeds are equally true, then since they are contradictory to one another, they are all equally false, or at least equally uncertain.

Everything is true, and nothing is true!

Human nature is not obliged to be consistent.

One can't have it both ways and both ways is the only way I want it.

Let the character as it began be preserved to the last; and let it be consistent with itself.

Whatever you can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true.

For me, truth cracks open in the places where things do not cohere. That's how life is.

To smell, though well, is to stink.

You may be wrong, but you may be right.

People want to change everything and, at the same time, want it all to remain the same.

How can someone so wonderful do something so terrible?

Which path do you intend to take, Nell?' said the Constable, sounding very interested. 'Conformity or rebellion?' Neither one. Both ways are simple-minded - they are only for people who cannot cope with contradiction and ambiguity.

Even in pure mathematics they can't remove all paradox, and the rest of us should also recognize we are going to have to endure a lot of paradox, like it or not.