"The truth is more important than the facts."?

Question

"The truth is more important than the facts."
Frank Lloyd Wright, US architect (1869 - 1959)

Can anybody tell me what this quote means?
The longer the answer the better!!

Answer 1

I've never heard that quote before, but I can tell you what I think it means. Truth refers to a deeper law and facts refer to realities that are not deep. So I think he's saying deep fundamental truths are more important than the actual situation. Or at least I think it means something like this.

Answer 2

"The truth is more important than the facts." That's beautiful and oh so true! I think that facts are just simply the accepted realities of things whereas the truth is the truth. The reality that might be known or not known. That might be accepted or might not be accepted. We only accept a certain fact if it was studied meticulously with the aid of common sense and logic. But what is truth then? There are truths that we find far too difficult to comprehend or to explain scientifically. And so, even though we know all the "established truths" (as I consider facts to be) in this world, there are, unavoidably, truths that we do not know of or not yet know of. Or truths we might have lost track of.

Answer 3

Facts can be mis-used by anyone. Facts generally come from a specialised field and are uninterpretable by the layman. Scientist and politicians can and will use "facts" to justify just about any position and action.

Case in point : All the well regarded"scientists" in the last decade or so refuting the existence of Global Warming. Most of this group was funded or indirectly supported by large oil and automotive companies.

The truth is the truth. Nobody can change it, only omit and hide it.

Answer 4

I beg to differ. What matters is "the absolute". Absolute are only the facts. While the truth differs. It depends on ones point of view. Look at the Afgan war for instance. In those days the Mujahidin were hailed as freedom fighters - that was the widely accepted truth in the West. The truth in the East was that they were murderers and bandids. After the most recent events and the West's involvement in the Aghanistan - the former "truth" of the East was adopted. So, ones truth is merely a reflection of ones point of view - ones believs and ones narrow self-interrest. What is absolute are the facts. In the example, the fact is that back then and now these people are using terrorist tactics to advance their cause. In this respect, the "Truth" is much closer to the "Propaganda" than to the "Facts".
And now answering the question - in my view Mr. Wright had made a sarcastic remarc. He wanted to stress out that we, people, are more oftern influenced by our emotions and believes and wishfull thinking than by the pure emotionless and selfless facts. The facts usualy look dull and gray, while the truths are bright, colourfull and ... deceving :) . In my experience i have met very few people that can make the distinction between facts and truths.

Answer 5

Facts are bits and pieces of the total reality (the small picture). The truth is the whole thing (the big picture). Wright was a holistic thinker.

This quote is well illustrated by the story of the six blind men and the elephant. Each man had possession of a fact (the elephant's ear is like a fan, its tail like a rope, its leg like a tree trunk, etc.) But not a one of them had a concept of what an elephant was really like....as a whole.

In architecture, the truth about a building is its overall presence, transcending its details. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Answer 6

This quote means that sometimes the collective facts lead you to certain conclusion that may not be accurate. What Mr. Wright is saying is that the truth is more important than the facts. It is a plea to use common sense instead of just looking at the facts.

Answer 7

I can't speak for everyone but I'll tell you what it means to me...

I have to give you a situation I lived through to explain my feelings.
I lost someone I loved deeply in an auto accident seven years ago. When this person was killed, none of my friends wanted to share any details with me because the person was coming home from a giant rave(drug party). They just said the person died in a car accident. I knew this person was into using and was well addicted to several different drugs. It hurt me that the person's family chose to try to deceive me about the events that led to this person's death. It's like they were afraid to tell me the truth.

Facts are just facts. They don't give anyone any room to have feelings. The truth, however, cuts like a knife right down to the bone.

I really can't describe it any better...

I actually hope you get a happier and better answer than mine.

Good luck

Answer 8

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RE:
"The truth is more important than the facts."?
"The truth is more important than the facts."
Frank Lloyd Wright, US architect (1869 - 1959)

Can anybody tell me what this quote means?
The longer the answer the better!!

Answer 9

So called "facts" can be manipulated, we see this so often in court cases.. The Truth, is an eternal process.. it is and will always be the truth. Mankind tries to manipulate the facts or social beliefs to fit the so called politically correct views of the so called norm, but the laws of God will always be unchanged. Truth is as truth does..
Sad isn't it though to think.. We depend and hope that truth shall always prevail, but does it? .. I have lost a home, family and more to speak truth.. but, would do it again.. You either stand for your principals or you stand for nothing, my grandmother taught me.

Answer 10

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EXCELLENT QUESTION BRO!! Yes, I believe that truth is a major casualty and that too many people, whether women, immigrants, minorities, gays/lesbians and non-Christians and so on use their hightened sensitivity to prevent debate and discussion on many topics. A few men use it too, but we are generally the marginalised ones in this PC culture. This prevents a lot of concepts from being aired because of fear that questions themselves are offensive, and there are real consequences if someone considers something to be an offence, no matter how it was intended. There is also a relatively small minority who use sensitivity as a weapon to humiliate others, extract payouts and socially engineer our society. Typically, the Left side of politics dominates in this area, especially outside the US, where Left MEANS Left. In the US, true left-wing politics only exists in a fringe or in universities. Truth has suffered greivous blows: excessive immigration, especially of those who are unskilled, is a huge burden, and an inability to speak effective English is too, but you will not see this taken seriously on the rare times we see these ideas in public debate. Homosexuality (male or female) cannot reproduce for a next generation, so we side-step this issue and allow IVF for lesbians, with an even chance that the spern donor might be held accountable for the support of the child if the lesbian couple split. Sperm donors, in most juristictons cannot prevent their sperm from going to a lesbian (sorry: "psychologically infertile") woman. We play ganes with our language to gender neutralise it in ways that are hypocritical and mystifying. All words that connote goodness and have a "male" gender are neutralised. Derogatory terms are left as male. This whole thing ignores the fact that most words in English are gender neutral and any gender connotations are placed by the context in which a word is used, with few exceptions. As an educator, I am supposed to teach in a manner that favours girls. The education system has been so altered in the last 30 years or so, that boys' styles of learning are largely ignored (boys schools are better than co-ed though), and girls thrive. I have no issue with the proper education of girls, but the idea of giving something back to the boys is ALWAYS considered as robbing the girls. Same goes for the massive amounts spent on Breast and Cervical cancers as opposed to Prostate and Penile cancers in men. They kill the same numbers of people, but fundeing for female cancers outstrips male cancers by 10:1 in Australia and Britain. Mention the truth of male death rates of these illnesses, and the blame is put onto the men. Try and do the same to a woman with breast/cervical cancer, and her condition is described as "a great plague on our nation". I have little time for PC, except to scorn it as a modern curse. You will find many who consider it a modern urban myth, and that those of us exposed to it in our daily lives are conspiracy theorists. Being a teacher, I know the truth about education, health-care and public policy where I live: PC is alive and well and busily socially engineering all it can get at.