quo+es: Truth

It is only the cynic who claims "to speak truth" at all times and in all places to all men in the same way, but who, in fact, displays nothing but a lifeless image of the truth. He dons the halo of the fantastical devotee of truth who can make no allowance for human weakness; but, in fact, he is destroying the living truth between men. He wounds shame, desecrates mystery, breaks confidence, betrays the community in which he lives, and laughs arrogantly at the devestation he has wrought and at the human weakness which "cannot bear truth." He says truth is destructive and demands its victims, and he feels like a god above these feeble creatures and does not know that he is serving Satan.

{Dietrich Bonhoeffer}