packbat: A bat wearing a big asexual-flag (black-gray-white-purple) backpack. (Silhouette)
packbat ([personal profile] packbat) wrote2006-06-14 10:28 pm

Truth or Happiness?

Okay, I can't sleep for wondering how people would answer this, so...

Which do you value more: truth or happiness?

Answer any way you please (though I reserve the right to delete anything obscene).

[identity profile] chanlemur.livejournal.com 2006-06-15 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
In practice, though it shames me to say it, I would often prefer to persist in comfortable illusions than to dwell in truth at all costs. I think I value happiness over truth.

[identity profile] feech.livejournal.com 2006-06-15 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Opposite for me. Truth.

[identity profile] packbat.livejournal.com 2006-06-16 12:23 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks for your input!

[identity profile] packbat.livejournal.com 2006-06-16 12:22 am (UTC)(link)
You know, I didn't see that reading of my question. If I may ask: are you saying that you believe truth is more valuable than happiness, but that in practice you seek happiness rather than truth?

[identity profile] packbat.livejournal.com 2006-06-16 01:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks!

[identity profile] packbat.livejournal.com 2006-06-16 01:36 am (UTC)(link)
Incidentally, a favorite quote of mine, that your answer made me think of:
Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces.
— Sigmund Freud