Aphorisms IV

On Truth

The quest for Truth is the great spur for human knowledge – not so much because of the future possibility of its attainment, as the primordial sense of its lack.

We all lie for the sake of Truth. We believe Truth is worth even the greatest lie.

We can be sure of the truth and worth of a feeling or a thought, not if we have taken a decision and acted upon it as the result of a reflective and rational process, but if our subsequent actions have allowed absolutely no time for such a process to be taken in the first place. Truth is better measured irrationally.

The most important requisite for the development of rational intellect is to overlook the fundamentally irrational nature of our psyche.

Ignorance is the origin of all Truth.

The fundamental difference between us humans and animals is not the capacity to lie, but the capacity to believe in our own lies.

For many, intellectual and philosophical rigor is an easy trade to make for Truth and certainty.

The Truth is born where reality can no longer be borne.

We are not a fussy lot. We only need the possibility of truth for us to believe, because much more important than whether something is true or not is whether we would like it to be true, and whether we need it to be so.

The religious spirit and the philosophical spirit: They are born from and driven by a need for Truth. But while the latter strives to achieve consciousness of this subconscious need, the whole raison d’etre of the former lies in its being able to avoid this as craftily as possible, even while continuing to gratify it as lustily as possible.

Those who try to convince us of the Truth are thereby trying to convince themselves.

Many people believe they can be sure of Truth; but the only thing we can all be sure of is the need for Truth.

Truth arises from the fear of its lack.

All believed Truths are too good to be believed. All perceived truths are too stressful not to be misperceived.

On Beliefs

Our beliefs do not concern what we think is true but what we need to be so.

People say there is nothing stronger than faith. They’re wrong. Stronger than faith itself is the need for faith.

Having become conscious of the absurdity of life, one can still find recourse to belief, but one can never again submit to one’s beliefs.

Beliefs are a protective coating to guard us from the harsh light of reality.

Belief is the accommodation of our desires to the illogical and irrational. It is an innocent trick we play on ourselves as we aim to make life a little more bearable by offering ourselves a psychological sanctuary where we may, to our heart's content, nurture a temple of hope -- but only as long as we offer it the necessary, and consistent, sacrifice of reason to keep those peculiar gods appeased.

Supernatural beliefs make perfect sense so long as one does not believe in them.

The easiest way to explain something we don't understand is to compare it to something we do. That's why we created God in the image of a super-father, so that he could create us, his super-children.

The afterlife is of gravest importance, but only so long as we’re still in this life.

The question is not whether there is a God or not. The question is whether there should be a God or not. But this is only a question we can ask – and answer – for ourselves.

Once one has understood God, one can no longer believe in it – at best, one can only sympathize with it.

The only alternative to God is a good sense of humor, and only those who take life most seriously can really have a sense of humor about it.

Contrary to popular belief, nihilists must affirm life all the more desperately and completely, because it’s all they have left.

Contrary to popular myth, it is precisely the soul that is mortal, and the body immortal. I believe in a soul only in so far as I believe it is something ever-changing, ever-evolving, created from our unique and unprecedented life experience, a strange mixture of memories, feelings, knowledge, ego and the subconscious, fated to die with us just as it was born with us; and I believe in our drives, instincts and desires – that is, our bodies – only in so far as they are unchanging and exist both before us and beyond us, oblivious of the individual, a common property of the species. Ultimately, only the species is immortal, whereas anything pertaining to the individual - and only to the individual - is worm food.

Once one has developed the requisite skills and unchained the mind from belief, hope, faith, truth and morality, when nothing any longer has meaning, it then proceeds that everything has significance, and this is far more valuable than meaning.

Belief is not based on faith, but fear.

All metaphysics can be explained psychologically, which is also the reason why it can never be dismissed by the same means.

In the West, there is no God without reason; in the East, there is no reason without God. The former places too much faith in mankind, while the latter places too little.