Possession vs. Pursuit of Truth

The true value of a man is not determined by his possession, supposed or real, of Truth, but rather by his sincere exertion to get to the Truth. It is not possession of the Truth, but rather the pursuit of Truth by which he extends his powers and in which his ever-growing perfectibility is to be found. Possession makes one passive, indolent, and proud. If God were to hold all Truth concealed in his right hand, and in his left only the steady and diligent drive for Truth, albeit with the proviso that I would always and forever err in the process, and offer me the choice, I would with all humility take the left hand.

-- Gotthold Lessing (1729-1781)

I like this quote.  So did Christopher Hitchens, who put it in one of his books.  There are few people I really admire, but Hitchens is one of them.  I don't have to agree with him to admire him.  His wit, his ability to turn a phrase, his elocution, his depth of knowledge -- all this deeply impresses me.  I love his curmudgeonly take on the world!  His put-down of Mother Teresa is particularly sweet.  The whole world sees her as saintly, but he sees a despicable grasping power-hungry woman carving out an empire for herself.  Can it get any better than that?  Oh yeah, baby....


I like the quote because it emphasizes the process of learning, the love of learning, and not the final result.  Not knowledge, but the effort to know -- that is the true measure of a person.  A lifetime of learning.  I, a non-believer, compare this quote with 2 Timothy 3:7, when Paul criticizes the "false teachers" and false learning by saying: "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."  This is exactly the kind of learning that Lessing (and Hitchens) emphasized and not the false claims of knowledge that surround us everywhere, be it from the pulpit, from academia, from philosophy (which I dearly love), from seers, mystics, or prophets.  Jihadists know the truth.  The Communist Party in China knows the truth.  Putin knows the truth.  The difference between Paul and Lessing is that Paul was peddling the one and only truth, and Lessing was cautioning us, from the 18th century when true religion held sway in Europe, that while truth itself is elusive, the pursuit of it is noble and is the only thing we can have for sure.


Do I have my own "truth"?  Yes -- we all do.  But I try to put it in perspective, since it will change over time as I continue my search for "truth" (or, as I prefer to say, "knowledge," since I am not so sure about "truth").