-By Francis Bacon

What is Truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be, that delight in giddiness; and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them, as was in these of the ancients.?

But it is not only the difficulty and labour which men take in finding out of Truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposes upon men's thoughts, that does bring lies in favour; but a natural, though corrupt love of the lie itself.

One of the later school of the Grecians examines the matter, and is at a stand, to think what should be in it, that men should love lies; where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets, nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the lie's sake.?

But I cannot tell; this same Truth is a naked and open daylight that does not show the masques, and mummeries, and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl that shows best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond, or carbuncle that shows best in varied lights.

A mixture of a lie does ever add pleasure. Does any man doubt that if there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds, of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?

參考中文譯文

作者：弗蘭西斯·培根

真理是什么？彼拉多提這個(gè)問題時(shí)帶著譏笑，他并不等待答案。的確有人喜歡輕率，他們認(rèn)為：一個(gè)信仰就是一種束縛，影響思想與行動(dòng)的自由。雖然這一類哲學(xué)家作為流派已成過去，但仍然留下來某些機(jī)智的論辯家，跟他們祖先一脈相承，他們雖說是強(qiáng)弩之末。

人們之所以喜歡謊言，并非僅僅因?yàn)槿藗儼l(fā)現(xiàn)真理的艱難與辛苦，也不是因?yàn)檎胬肀话l(fā)現(xiàn)后要強(qiáng)加于人的頭腦，而是因?yàn)槿藗儗?duì)謊言本身有一種自然的、雖說是腐蝕性的癡情。

某晚期學(xué)派的一位希臘學(xué)者研究了這件事，并且專門思考人們癡情于謊言的內(nèi)在原因，發(fā)現(xiàn)他們既不像詩人那樣是為了快樂，也不像商人那樣為了利益，而是為了謊言本身。

但我說不明白，真理就像是赤裸裸的、毫不掩飾的白晝，它不像燭光那樣把世上的假面具舞會(huì)、啞劇、慶典展現(xiàn)得半明半暗、半嚴(yán)肅半輕松，神秘莫測(cè)，真假難辨。真理也許有珍珠的價(jià)值，只在白天光彩奪目；但不會(huì)升值到鉆石或珠寶，在不同的光照下熠熠生輝，璀璨耀眼。

魚目混珠的謊言總是增添快樂。如果從人的頭腦里拿掉虛妄的意見、迷惑人的幻想、虛偽的評(píng)價(jià)、隨意的想象、諸如此類，誰會(huì)懷疑他們?cè)S多人的頭腦變得空虛可憐，充滿憂慮、無聊寂寞呢？