more on this theme | more from this text
Full Idea
Pythagoras advised above all things to speak the truth, for this alone deifies man.
Clarification
'Deifies' means turns into a god
Gist of Idea
Speak the truth, for this alone deifies man
Source
report of Pythagoras (reports [c.530 BCE]) by Porphyry - Life of Pythagoras §41
Book Ref
'The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library', ed/tr. Guthrie,Kenneth Sylvan [Phanes 1988], p.131
A Reaction
Idea 4421 (of Nietzsche) stands in contrast to this. I am not quite sure why speaking the truth has such a high value. I am inclined to a minimalist view, which is just that philosophy is an attempt to speak the truth, as fishermen try to catch fish.
Related Idea
Idea 4421 Philosophers have never asked why there is a will to truth in the first place [Nietzsche]
| 5896 | Speak the truth, for this alone deifies man [Pythagoras, by Porphyry] |
| 3051 | Pythagoras discovered the numerical relation of sounds on a string [Pythagoras, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 3053 | Pythagoras taught that virtue is harmony, and health, and universal good, and God [Pythagoras, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 375 | When musical harmony and rhythm were discovered, similar features were seen in bodily movement [Pythagoras, by Plato] |
| 644 | For Pythagoreans the entire universe is made of numbers [Pythagoras, by Aristotle] |
| 638 | Pythagoreans define timeliness, justice and marriage in terms of numbers [Pythagoras, by Aristotle] |
| 553 | Pythagoreans think mathematical principles are the principles of all of nature [Pythagoras, by Aristotle] |
| 554 | Pythagoreans say things imitate numbers, but Plato says things participate in numbers [Pythagoras, by Aristotle] |
| 7467 | The modern idea of an immortal soul was largely created by Pythagoras [Pythagoras, by Watson] |
| 5244 | For Pythagoreans, justice is simply treating all people the same [Pythagoras, by Aristotle] |
| 7485 | For Pythagoreans 'one' is not a number, but the foundation of numbers [Pythagoras, by Watson] |