They love truth when it reveals itself and hate it when it reveals them

Reeder’s observation, “They love truth when it reveals itself and hate it when it reveals them,” names the self-protective division at the heart of his counsel to Annon: people welcome truth when it serves them, but resist it when it implicates their judgment or character.

Context and Meaning

Annon is overwhelmed by conflicting accounts from Drosta, his uncle, the Arch-Rike, and the order that trained him. He asks Reeder which version he should believe, describing his mind as tangled in knots. Reeder does not claim to know which account is true. Instead, he separates the question of truth from the desire to believe: truth is a matter of what is, while people may resist acknowledging that they have been deceived because doing so stains their view of themselves.

The maxim sharpens that distinction into a compact contrast. Truth can reveal the world, but it can also reveal the person who would rather remain hidden. Reeder’s paired clauses turn the same act of disclosure in two directions: revelation is welcome when it illuminates something outside the self, and hated when it exposes the self’s own error or complicity.

Reeder’s Counsel

The line emerges while Reeder and Annon share wine in Canton Vaud. To explain the importance of locating truth, Reeder grounds the conversation in their immediate situation: whatever others might claim about their whereabouts, they are there together. His example makes truth concrete rather than merely doctrinal, then his reflection on self-deception explains why a person might refuse an otherwise plain fact.

Reeder goes further than cynicism. He says that lies do not satisfy the mind’s hunger for truth, even when people resist truth that rebukes them. The maxim therefore describes a conflict rather than declaring truth futile: self-love can make truth painful, but falsehood cannot provide lasting satisfaction. Reeder also admits the limits of his own knowledge. He cannot verify Annon’s uncle’s story, so he proposes a path toward further inquiry rather than presenting his judgment as certainty.

The Proposed Search

Reeder invites Annon to accompany him the next morning to defend a part of Silvandom where the Thirteen say a Dryad is hidden. Because Dryads live for hundreds of years, Reeder suggests that this one may know what Annon needs to learn, including where the oracle Basilides can be found and whether the uncle’s account is true. His closing qualification, “Or not,” leaves the possibility of an answer open without promising one.

That proposed journey gives the maxim practical force. Annon’s problem is not resolved by choosing whichever authority offers the most comforting account; he must seek knowledge while recognizing that even a promising source may not settle the matter. The expression thus joins an ethical warning about self-deception to the story’s concrete movement toward investigation.