Fay: Your explanation had the ring of truth. Naturally I disbelieved every word.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker finds an explanation plausible enough to sound true but immediately dismisses it entirely.
- In plain terms
- She says the explanation sounds true but she doesn't believe any of it.
- What can you take from it?
- Plausibility does not guarantee belief or trust.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Why do we disbelieve things that sound true?
- What makes an explanation ring true?
Another view
It ignores the possibility that some parts of an explanation could be true.
More from Joe Orton
Dennis: She's turned me down. She's broken my heart. Hal: She doesn't know what she is missing, baby. Dennis: But she does! That's what's so humiliating.
Permalink to quote #8 Truscott: Why aren't you both at the funeral? I thought you were mourners. Fay: We decided not to go. We were afraid we might break down. Truscott: That's a se…
Permalink to quote #10 Fay: The Ten Commandments. She was a great believer in some of them.
Permalink to quote #7
Related quotes
It ain't necessarily so, It ain't necessarily so. De t'ings dat yo' li'ble To read in de Bible, It ain't necessarily so.
Ira GershwinIra Gershwin quote #4 What the eye see and the ears hear, the mind believes. (1920)
Harry HoudiniHarry Houdini quote #6 Nothing can be more contemptible than to suppose Public RECORDS to be True.
William BlakeWilliam Blake quote #6