Maria Semple Quotes

We who are interested in relative truth have to keep digging for it and not let ourselves be sucked under.

People say I have a distorted lens. I think I see things as they really are.

As one may bring himself to believe almost anything he is inclined to believe, it makes all the difference whether we begin or end with the inquiry, 'What is truth?'

What is the truth? Is it what you experience? Is it what I experience? Or is there some objective truth in between?

The unreliable narrator is an odd concept. The way I see it, we're all unreliable narrators of our lives who usually have absolute trust in our self-told stories. Any truth is, after all, just a matter of perspective.

In my long experience, one thing I know is that truth is elusive.

The reason why most people are frustrated is because a lie cannot be turned into a truth.

It is an ever-growing belief with me that truth cannot be found by violent means.

... if a man really and truly believed that black was white, you might advise him to see an oculist, but you mustn't call him a liar.

Silence is a great help to a seeker after truth like myself.

Wherever you encounter truth, look upon it as Christianity.

Utter truth is essential...and to get that truth may take a lot of searching and long hours.

Nothing is poorer than a truth expressed as it was thought. Committed to writing in such cases, it is not even a bad photograph. Truth wants to be startled abruptly, at one stroke, from her self-immersion, whether by uproar, music or cries for help.

We do not progress from error to truth, but from truth to truth

Why is it people who want the truth never believe it when they hear it?

There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily

Truth is a torch, but a terrific one; therefore we all try to reach it with closed eyes, lest we should be scorched.

Skepticism is not an end in itself; it is a tool for the discovery of truths.

Perception is reality, but it may not be actuality, and you have got to be able to keep the difference between that.

A mystery is solved with a story.

Truth and dreams are always getting muddled.

Our beliefs are, however, often contrary to fact.

Unless we love the truth we cannot know it.