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.....Man defends himself as much as he can against truth, as a child does against a medicine, as the man of the Platonic cave did against the light. He does not willingly follow his path, but has to be dragged along backward.
.....The natural liking for the false has several causes: the inheritance of prejudices, which produces an unconscious habit, a slavery; the predominance of the imagination over reason, which affects the understanding; the predominance of the passions over the conscience, which depraves the heart; the predominance of the will over the intelligence, which vitiates the character.
.....A lively, disinterested, persistent liking for truth is extraordinarily rare. Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not to be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism and doubt.
.....Truth is not only violated by falsehood, it may be outraged by silence.
..........— Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-1881), Swiss philosopher. The Private Journal of Henri Frédéric Amiel, December 17, 1856. Quoted in George Seldes, One Thousand Americans (New York: Boni & Gaer, 1948), page vi.
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