Sometimes, surely, truth is closer to imagination or to intelligence, to love than to fact? To be accurate is not to be right.
Interpretation
Truth can be more aligned with ideas and feelings than with cold facts.
In this quote, Shirley Hazzard suggests that the essence of truth may sometimes reside more in the realms of imagination, intelligence, and love rather than strictly adhering to factual accuracy. She emphasizes that being precise or factual does not necessarily equate to being correct, highlighting the complexities and nuances of understanding truth beyond mere verification.
In practice
In a discussion about the nature of truth and reality, this quote can highlight the importance of perspective.
One would always want to think of oneself as being on the side of love, ready to recognize it and wish it well -but, when confronted with it in others, one so often resented it, questioned its true nature, secretly dismissed the particular instance as folly or promiscuity. Was it merely jealousy, or a reluctance to admit so noble and enviable a sentiment in anyone but oneself?
The tragedy is not that love doesn't last. The tragedy is the love that lasts.
The world also remains a hopeful place. Calls for democracy and human rights are being reborn everywhere, and these calls are an expression of support for the values enshrined in the United Nations Charter. They encourage our hopes for a more stable, more peaceful, more prosperous world.
It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience, but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience.
We want a society in which we are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. That is what we mean by a moral society - not a society in which the State is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the State.
We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.
Ever since the economic crisis in 2008, millions of people have accepted cuts in all sorts of things - from real wages and living standards to benefits and hospital care - without any real opposition. The cuts may be right, or they may be stupid - but the astonishing thing is how no-one really challenges them.
Everything important that I have done can be put into a little suitcase.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.