Al-Kindi Quotes on Truth
Abu Yusuf al-Kindi was an Arab philosopher, mathematician, and polymath, often called the father of Arab philosophy. This page collects quotes attributed to Al-Kindi on the topic of truth, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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“We ought not to be ashamed of acknowledging truth from whatever source it comes to us, even if it is brought to us by former generations and foreign peoples.”
Fi’l-falsafa al-ula ("On First Philosophy") in M. A. Abu Rida (ed.) Rasa’ il al-Kindi al-falsafiyya (Cairo, 1950), p. 103; trans. R. Walzer in Greek into Arabic (Oxford, 1962), p. 12; reported in Albert Hourani , A History of the Arab Peoples , 2nd ed. (2005) ch. 4 -
Attributed to Al-Kindi:
“Philosophy is the knowledge of things in their realities, insofar as is possible for man.”
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Attributed to Al-Kindi:
“It is fitting for us not to be ashamed to admire and to acquire truth from wherever it comes.”
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“We ought not to be ashamed of appreciating the truth and of acquiring it wherever it comes from, even if it comes from races distant and nations different from us. For the seeker of truth nothing takes precedence over the truth.”
Ibid. , trans. Alfred L. Ivry, Al-Kindi's Metaphysics (SUNY Press, 1978) p. 58