What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.

Certainly there be, that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting.

And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them, as was in those of the ancients.

But it is not only the difficulty and labour, which men take in finding out of truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favour; but a natural though corrupt love, of the lie itself.

One of the later school of the Grecians, examineth the matter, and is at a stand, to think what should be in it, that men should love lies;  where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets, nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the lie's sake.

But I cannot tell; this same truth, is a naked, and open day-light, that doth not show the masks, and mummeries, and triumphs, of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond, or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights.

A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure.

Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds, of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?

One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy vinum doemonum, because it filleth the imagination; and yet, it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt; such as we spake of before.

But, howsoever these things are thus in men's depraved judgments, and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.

The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense; the last, was the light of reason; and his sabbath work ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit.

First he breathed light, upon the face of the matter or chaos; then he breathed light, into the face of man; and still he breatheth and inspireth light, into the face of his chosen.

The poet, that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well: It is a pleasure, to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure, to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth (a hill not to becommanded, and where the air is always clear and serene), and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below:  so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling, or pride.

Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.

To pass from theological, andphilosophical truth, to the truth of civil business; it will beacknowledged, even by those that practise it not, that clear, and round dealing, is the honour of man's nature; and that mixture of falsehoods,is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it.

For these winding, and crooked courses, are the goings of the serpent; which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet.

There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious.

And therefore Montaigne saith prettily, when he inquired the reason, why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge? saith he, If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man.

Surely the wickedness of falsehood, and breach of faith, cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal, to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men; it being foretold, that when Christ cometh, he shall not find faith upon the earth.

「真理是啥呢？」彼拉多吊兒郎當地隨口問問。

沒錯，態度輕挑嘻笑，視真理為僵化的信仰枷鎖，在思想上行動上，牽制我們的自由。

即使，這類哲學家們的派閥早就沒了，還是可以在一些人身上聽到相同的巧辯，他們的確和這些古人血脈相承，就只是貧血了些。

不單單是尋得真理本來辛苦困難，或再加上尋得時候，施諸人們易騙易哄的腦袋上的那股壓力，也在於人們對謊言天生無法自拔的喜愛。

一個晚期的希臘學派在考察過後主張：人類喜愛謊言，既不是像詩人那樣為了尋覓趣味才做，也不像商人那樣要求取利益而喜歡說謊，單單只為了謊言本來要達到的目的。

但我不能明白的是，這不變的真理，竟刺眼有如這世上的大白晝一樣，還不及燭光點亮假面舞會、煩瑣慶典或羅馬凱旋式時的一半莊嚴細緻。有時，真理可能價比一顆白日下最耀眼的珍珠，但絕及不上一顆閃耀在五光十色中的鑽石紅玉。

摻雜謊言一類的東西總加添樂趣。

任何人都會懷疑，如果把虛榮心、諂媚奉承、謬讚、空想從人的心靈取走，那麼是不是在許多人心中只留下裝滿憂鬱、厭棄和不快的貧乏事物呢？

某位神父曾很嚴厲地咒罵詩藝是惡魔的酒水，因為它滿足了空想。但這還不過是扯上謊言的邊邊，並沒有真要騙人，只是沉浸其中，會造成傷害，如我們前面討論過的。

無論人們的判斷力和情感如何墮落，真理依然是人性中主導的善，並且，唯有真理能評斷真理，唯有真理能教我們探詢、熱愛與苦追真理，唯有真理彰顯真理，唯有相信真理才能享有真理。

上帝創世時的第一個創造物是感受之光，最後一個創造物是理性之光，從祂進入安息那時起，便一直充滿聖靈的光照。

首先，祂呼出感受之光在物或混沌的上面，然後，把理性之光吹進人的臉面，接著，祂吹灌聖靈之光進祂所揀選的人。

有位詩人，提升了這原本一無是處的學派，還很了不起地說到：「站在海岸看船沈沒入海是一種樂趣，站在城堡的窗內看一場戰役以及底下那兒的冒險犯難是一種樂趣，但沒有樂趣比得上站在真理的高台上（空氣清新，不受制於人的高丘），看見錯誤，看見底下山谷的迷路、濛霧、暴風雨」這畢竟是懷著悲憫而不是自滿自傲地的胸懷。

確實，使一個人的心變得慈愛，安靠主，轉向真理的標竿，就好像從塵世升上天堂。

從神學的真理、哲學的真理再到公眾事務的真理，即使不曾實踐的人，也必然知道，處事光明磊落是人性的榮光。摻雜虛情假意，就像是金和銀合鑄成錢幣，會更加強金屬的強度，但卻壓低了幣值。

因為蛇才會走出歪七扭八的路跡，卑賤地用腹部匍匐前進，而不是用腳。

沒有比被發現虛偽與背信更加讓人羞恥的罪行了。

所以，蒙田說得漂亮，當他探詢為什麼欺騙這個字眼代表如此可恥如此可憎的評價時，他說：「如果好好評量，說一個人騙人，等於是說，他敢於面對上帝，卻害怕面對世人。」因為謊言直接攤開在上帝面前，卻逃避世人。

可以肯定的是，到了上帝審判每一個世代的最後雷鳴的時刻，虛偽的惡與信仰的破口不可能被這麼清楚表述。因為，預言中說，基督再臨時，祂將在地上找不到義人。