All writers … have an obligation to our readers: it's the obligation to write true things, especially important when we are creating tales of people who do not exist in places that never were — to understand that truth is not in what happens but what it tells us about who we are. Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all.
quote by Neil Gaiman
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Related quotes
We all – adults and children, writers and readers – have an obligation to daydream. We have an obligation to imagine. It is easy to pretend that nobody can change anything, that we are in a world in which society is huge and the individual is less than nothing: an atom in a wall, a grain of rice in a rice field. But the truth is, individuals change their world over and over, individuals make the future, and they do it by imagining that things can be different.
quote by Neil Gaiman
Submitted by anonym
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The perception of truth
Fact exists, truth needs to be believed
My truth is important to me
I also understand that
Your truth is important, to you
My life is not just a single truth
But a village of many kinds of truth
The version you believe, may be different from mine
And both versions are true, to each of us
The duality of truth
Fights for resolution
And yet, coexists
Quietly, when it needs to
Funny concept this truth
Does fact indeed exist?
And do we really need,
To believe the truth?
Are both just empty shadows
We chase, to play our role
In a divine comedy
For an audience of one
poem by Anita Atina
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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When Did Truth Become a Perception
When did truth become a perception,
And not an expectation.
When did it become questioned,
And deception an obligation.
People excuse themselves from misdeeds.
And then demand forgiveness,
To continue doing as they please.
While slandering and backstabbing,
Those who are honest and of integrity.
When did truth become a perception,
And not an expectation.
When did it become questioned,
And deception an obligation.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Who is obligated?
Obligated to take care,
Obligated to spare,
Obligated to be awake,
Obligated to sacrifice,
Obligated to worry,
Obligated to keep smile,
Obligated for life,
Obligated for the name,
Obligated for giving birth,
Obligated for the initial,
Obligated with responsibilities.
What obligation do they have,
When they disown them?
What obligation do they have,
when they abandon them?
What obligation do they have,
when they torture them?
What obligation do they have,
when they walk over them?
What obligation do human have,
when they are alone?
poem by Veeraiyah Subbulakshmi
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When a woman tells the truth she is creating the possibility for more truth around her.
quote by Adrienne Rich
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Truth can Hurt
The truth can hurt
Some writers write infrequently
and others write prolifically.
What matters is the quality
much more so than the quantity.
Good writers by their words display
their thoughts in a coherent way
Describing things they have observed
and garner praise that’s well deserved.
But some think anything will do
and they pay no attention to
the rules successful writers use
they will not learn: point blank refuse
to accept well meant critique.
They much prefer dishonest praise
from so called friends afraid
to speak the simple truth lest they dismay
their friend by speaking honestly.
So naturally they take offence
when other people criticise
that which seems perfect in their eyes.
True writers take this in their stride
they know their work is not perfect.
But what they know is they have tried
and that is all you can expect.
New writers lack experience
but everyone must start some where.
The wise ones do not take offence
when other people show they care
enough to offer some advice.
Because they can remember when
they too were just a new novice
to painting pictures with their pen.
27 feb 08
poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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It is the aim of public life to arrange that all forms of power are entrusted, so far as possible, to men who effectively consent to be bound by the obligation towards all human beings which lies upon everyone, and who understand the obligation. Law is the quality of the permanent provisions for making this aim effective.
quote by Simone Weil
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
quote by G.K. Chesterton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Truth and Lies
Some poeple always tell the truth,
Some people never lie,
You lied you fibbed and told the truth,
You managed to make me cry.
It's not that very often,
When someone tells the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but,
I really can't believe you,
I've got to have some proof.
How could you go and do this,
You said you'd never hurt me,
Was that just another lie?
Because you've gone and made me cry.
I think you'll find that in this life,
You'll find two different sorts,
There ones that tell the truth
and ones that always lie.
The ones that tell the truth,
Will make you sing and dance,
The ones that tell the lies,
Will make you sad and cry.
poem by Claire Abbott
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The non-existent truth
The defined and undefined truth,
Endowed with knowledge or without knowledge,
Sometimes real or unreal,
Certainly including being and non-being,
Accepting that being is true,
Accepting the non-existence of being,
When the absence of existence means the negation of being,
Accepting that truth did not exist,
And it would have been true that it did not exist, at the same time,
Understanding that truth is eternal,
Imagining the idea of a non-existing world,
Before its own existence,
Accepting the universal and immortal truth,
So interchangeable with being,
While the universal never ceases of itself,
Recognizing the truth always existing in an eternal intellect,
While the created truth is not existing,
Understanding the created truth as not existing,
Remaining truth, when the true things have been destroyed,
Or remaining truth, when all true things can be destroyed,
Or remaining truth, when our minds can not see the truth itself,
Truth, being in sense, always as a consequence of its act.
Truth, not being in sense because
The sense does not know the truth it truly judges,
Even it judges truly about things,
The existent and non-existent truth.......
Copyright © ® Marieta Maglas. All rights reserved.
A philosophical poem about truth.(references: The Lankavatara Sutra, Mulamadhyamaka, The Vedanta-Sutras and Spinoza.)
poem by Marieta Maglas
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Just An Old Truth Teller
Lester atlas, a crude, very rich corporate raider, traps norman in the caribbean dream by offering to buy the hotel for him, and then welshing on the deal when norman can no long back out. he is
Spicable but somehow lovable rogue, who in his own mind is a magnanimous, misunderstood benefactor of humanity. what other people call corporate raiding, he explains, telling the truth in busine
Tters. why jimmy decided to give him a song with a tango rhythm and a klezmer trill I dont know, but it works.
Im just an old truth teller
Im your candid friend
Im not some daydream seller
I do not pretend
Ive a sense of survival
And screwing my rivals
Thats labeled me crossed and uncouth
But I cant help it I just tell the truth
He cant help it, he just tells the truth
Im just an old truth teller
Brutally direct
I see it eye for eye
Im rarely incorrect
Why call me a sharp trader
A corporate raider
Im a role model for todays youth
Its so simple, I just tell the truth
He cant help it, he just tells the truth
Bridge:
Why was I born to be right all the time
In deal after deal after deal
Foiling those sharks that are circling my penthouse
Hoping to make a meal
No good deed goes unpunished
Nothing goes as planed
My ingrate family left me
I dont understand
Wheres your wife?
In alaska
Any sons?
In nebraska
And my daughter milks cows in duluth
I cant help it, I just tell the truth
Ohh he cant help it, he just sells it
He cant help, he just tells it
I cant help, I just tell the truth
song performed by by Jimmy Buffett
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Fiction and Truthiness
He said:
'The best fiction reminds us of what truth ought to be
and simultaneously calls that truth into being
if it doesn't yet exist.
Poetry is heightened awareness of that Fiction-Truth
heightened because we often are blind to truths we need.
Story telling is the art form which reminds us we are in fact
a small band before the fire, holding back the dark. There we invent
stories of hope to get us through the night.
The writer lives inside what-is- not- yet as a hedge against bad times
which may currently exist, and preserves for the future precious meanings murdered sometimes by the present.
Speaking is a capacity of the thorax, writing is the way the soul speaks.
When speech is silenced we only have our imaginations against bad times and this has saved the world time and time again.
People die, ideas don't; that is the purpose of fiction.
The miracle of life is that I can shake your hand while dreaming of home.
The only true gift of life is that out-pouring of love from us humans into anything. Thwart that and meet Hell.
Truth is not linear; truth now may not be truth later; truth then may not be truth now, Truth travels but it is not the world that has changed it is that the world has changed us.
Find a man obsessed with the absolute truth of anything, religious or scientific, and I will show you a fanatic.
Truth is not enough even if it is true.
Find a man who thinks he is right about anything totally and I will show you a man with a stick ready to use it to prove he is right.
How many times have our ideals of what ought to be allowed us to kill, hurt and harm flesh and blood.
Ideology is a serious disease resulting from a prolonged exposure to Idiots.
The purpose of truth is to make human and life on this planet possible.
Untruth is what destroys human life and this planet.
poem by Lonnie Hicks
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No Adequate Explanation
I have no adequate explanation-
I just know-because my heart tells me!
As though in a state of suspended animation,
I wait, and shall, because my heart tells me! !
They say there is a mate for each-
I say mine is you, because I feel it in my soul!
No sacrifice is too much, which leads me within your reach-
I know-because I feel it in my heart, which you stole!
I have no doubts, we are a Divine truth-
You know-because your heart tells you so;
I just believe, I need no form of proof-
You believe-because your heart tells you so!
I know it is but a matter of where, when or how-
Yet, because my mind tells me so, I wish it were now!
Maurice Harris,3 March 2010
poem by Maurice Harris
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The Witness
my innate obligation to tell the truth
begins
when your capacity to tell a lie
ends
my innate obligation to tell the truth
and nothing but the truth
ends
when your capacity to tell all lies
and nothing but lies
begins
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Demon voice
he tells me to fight not to walk away
he tells me to scream not to talk rational
he tells me to hate not to forgive
he tells me destroy not to create
he tells me to give in
he tells me to kill
he knows i'm getting weaker
he knows it's almost his time
he knows he will be free
he knows he will have fun
he knows it will be a bloody ride to the end
he knows the end is death and so do i
poem by Paddy Jansen
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Oh! Common
there are reason why we have gone to other places
they mistook us as
hedonists as people who have no pity for money
squandering time
and lusting on the views of the lakes and
yachts
people pretend that they know our hearts
that they know the language of our minds
but we do not mind them
for in truth what makes us happy is still a secret
only the two of us know this
we are creating distances now
drawing the boundaries and building the great walls
of china in our arms
as it seems
the nearer we are to them
we become more strangers to ourselves
but as it has become apparent now
the farther we are
from their words
the more we become
perfect in ourselves
who tells us what is right or wrong?
or what to do for the coming days?
they?
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Paradox of Truth
The most subtle lies art the greatest truth
Like the fairy tales of our imaginative youth
Each truth a paradox, a lie does tell
A truth somewhere in mythical spell
When one lies, truth still speaks
For in everything doth truth seek
To express itself to hearts to behold
The truth of life in every lie told
Told in such eloquent song
There is truth in something especially wrong
Rhetoric, myths, ignorance and lies
Truth in all, every truth belies.
If thou don't believe it is certainly true
For to believe is true to me and you
And in this poem if you believe no truth
Let this poem be truth's own proof….
poem by Kevin Michael Murphy
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We not only have a legal obligation to honor our commitments, we have a moral obligation to provide the coverage we promised to provide to these people.
Winged Bull
Well Im looking at her from a rock &
Roll tower
With the windows, its eyes
And its black stained sides that cant
Be climbed
Cause theyre slick as wet glass
And the gate lets the force out, but thru
None shall pass
But when Im with you its just me in my time
Guess Ive taken some form
Who knows which time around
But one of the reasons is to unite me
With you
Im sure of that baby, if a heart tells the truth
Is it the winged bull
Or the horns of old pan
Theres ra unto isis
Theres woman to man
Sun and the moon
Minus and plus
Zero equals two
In love and in us
Wings of fire and me in my time
Taking the form making this sound
Its all of the reasons that unite me with you
Im sure of that baby
If a heart tells the truth
Heart tells the truth
song performed by by Hall & Oates
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Truth Through Repetition
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Truth through repetition Truth through repetition Truth through repetiion
Truth through repetition Truth through repetition Truth through repetition
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through repetition Truth through repetition Truth through repetition Truth
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poem by David Keig
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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