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About this quote

What does it mean?
Pilate asked about truth but refused to wait for an answer, highlighting human evasion.
In plain terms
People often ask about truth but do not want to truly understand it.
What can you take from it?
Seek truth with a willingness to accept the answer.

Where it applies

  • debate
  • learning
  • self-reflection

Putting it to work

  • listen deeply
  • accept answers
  • ask sincerely

Questions to consider

  • Do you truly seek answers?
  • What truth have you avoided?

Another view

Sometimes questions are asked for show rather than real inquiry.

More from Francis Bacon

  1. Cato said the best way to keep good acts in memory was to refresh them with new.

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  2. No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.

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  3. Cosmus, Duke of Florence, was wont to say of perfidious friends, that 'We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgiv…

    Permalink to quote #61

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