Witty, provocative, and endlessly quotable, Irish writer Oscar Wilde made a career of exposing the contradictions in Victorian society. This line from his 1895 comedy “The Importance of Being Earnest” is more than just a clever turn of phrase — it’s a sly observation about the nature of truth itself. Wilde suggests truth isn’t a concrete ideal but something complex, messy, and often shaped by context and perspective. This insight feels especially poignant considering Wilde’s own personal life: Just months after the play’s premiere, he was imprisoned for “gross indecency” due to his homosexuality — a truth he was unable to conceal in a society obsessed with appearances. Whether in regards to personal relationships, politics, or self-reflection, his words remain a sharp reminder that the truth is often far more complicated than many would like it to be.

In his 1926 debut novel, “The Sun Also Rises,” Ernest Hemingway explores the lives of young American and British expatriates as they wander through Europe in the mid-1920s. Hemingway himself lived in Paris during this period, and both the characters and the events of the novel are based on his lived experience. In the second chapter, the novel’s narrator and protagonist, Jake Barnes, listens as Robert Cohn, a restless and dissatisfied writer living in Paris, suggests they both go to South America. Cohn believes the change of location would solve his existential problems, but Jake isn’t convinced, telling him, “If you went there the way you feel now it would be exactly the same.” Jake knows Cohn won’t escape his problems by simply moving to a different place, because Cohn’s unhappiness ultimately derives from internal issues that can be resolved only with inner work.