Truth is most often used to mean in accord with fact or reality or fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal.
The opposite of truth is falsehood, which, correspondingly, can also take on a logical, factual, or ethical meaning. The concept of truth is discussed and debated in several contexts, including philosophy and religion. Many human activities depend upon the concept, which is assumed rather than a subject of discussion, including science, law, and everyday life.
Various theories and views of truth continue to be debated among scholars and philosophers. Language and words are a means by which humans convey information to one another and the method used to recognize a "truth" is termed a criterion of truth. There are differing claims on such questions as what constitutes truth: what things are truthbearers capable of being true or false; how to define and identify truth; the roles that revealed and acquired knowledge play; and whether truth is subjective or objective, relative or absolute.
Many religions consider perfect knowledge of all truth about all things (omniscience) to be an attribute of a divine or supernatural being.
Read more about Truth: Nomenclature, Orthography, and Etymology, Major Theories of Truth, In Medicine and Psychiatry, In Religion: Omniscience
Famous quotes containing the word truth:
“Truth is used to vitalize a statement rather than devitalize it. Truth implies more than a simple statement of fact. “I don’t have any whisky,” may be a fact but it is not a truth.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“An epigram is a flashlight of a truth; a witticism, truth laughing at itself.”
—Minna Antrim (b. 1861)
“The truth is that our race survived ignorance; it is our scientific genius that will do us in.”
—Stephen Vizinczey (b. 1933)