Know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

Maybe not. Actually knowing the truth can be painful. It may compel you to act in a way that is “socially unacceptable”, or maybe just non-PC. It can alienate you from friends and family.

Knowing “the Truth” is also connected to that thing we call “free will”. How much free will does a genius have when he/she sees one best solution to a problem that others have trouble visualizing, and the struggle that ensues to “compromise”?
No “truth” can exist outside of a moral universe of sensibilities, either. We reject the idea of certain practices, such as slavery today, which were acceptable not too many generations ago. Some slave owners, such as Jefferson Davis, were ‘moral’ men, in that they did not wish to mistreat their slaves, and strove to be fair. They were not brutish men. But their slaves were still just that; slaves. And that is a very unlovely truth about the US, too.

But honestly (?), the truth is always preferable to a pack of lies, and when we lie to ourselves so continuously about everything from how funny David Letterman is to well the economy is doing (the Recession is over!), we only hurt ourselves.
What a vale of tears this world is. And that’s the truth too.

PS. Judy Collins also had a drug problem that she has only recently revealed. And that’s a sad truth too.