Literary notes about falsehood (AI summary)
Falsehood in literature is a multifaceted term, evoking both ethical transgressions and complex philosophical debates. It is often employed to critique moral decay and hypocrisy, as in discussions of historical impiety and deceit ([1], [2]), while simultaneously serving as a counterpoint to truth in philosophical discourse, challenging readers to distinguish between appearance and reality ([3], [4], [5]). In narrative fiction, falsehood becomes a potent symbol of betrayal and personal strife, reflecting the tension between one’s inner integrity and the deceptive facades maintained in society ([6], [7], [8], [9]). Moreover, its use spans genres—from dramatic declarations in poetic works to incisive political commentary—underscoring its enduring role as a tool for exploring human fallibility and the complexities of truth ([10], [11], [12]).
- He wanders over Roman history, and over Greek philosophy and mythology, and finds everywhere crime, impiety and falsehood.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato - This is the falsehood, the hollowness, the hypocrisy of human affairs!
— from The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Counsels and Maxims by Arthur Schopenhauer - Call it not false; look not at the falsehood of it, look at the truth of it.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle - Truth and Falsehood properly belong to Propositions, not to Ideas.
— from An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1 by John Locke - When our proposition is "Socrates does not precede Plato," the conditions of truth and falsehood are exactly reversed.
— from The Analysis of Mind by Bertrand Russell - He cared little that he was in mortal sin, that his life had grown to be a tissue of subterfuge and falsehood.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - “I believe you are telling me a falsehood, Anne,” she said sharply.
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery - I know not in what manner, under what form of falsehood he has imposed on you; but his success is not perhaps to be wondered at.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - She thought that everything was lost, that the falsehood she had told to wound her husband had shattered her life into fragments.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - No, I’ll none of it: I pr’ythee, keep that for the hangman; for I know thou worshippest Saint Nicholas as truly as a man of falsehood may.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - Holiness having abandoned Truth, takes up with Falsehood, who is attended by Infidelity.
— from Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I by Edmund Spenser - Likewise in politics : the individual lacks the belief in his own right, innocence; falsehood rules supreme, as also the worship of the moment.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Nietzsche
