Zoroaster — "I yearn to know the truth, O Ahura Mazda, and to live according to it."
I yearn to know the truth, O Ahura Mazda, and to live according to it.
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More from Zoroaster
"May we be granted the choice of good over evil, and the wisdom to discern the right path."
"Whoso delights the righteous, him Ahura Mazda will bless."
"He who follows the Lie is a deceiver, and his end shall be sorrow."
"Form no covetous desire, so that the demon of greediness may not deceive thee, and the treasure of the world may not be tasteless to thee."
"Speak the truth. Even if your voice cracks a little."
About Zoroaster (c. 1500-1000 BCE (debated))
Iranian prophet who founded Zoroastrianism, the first major religion of cosmic dualism between good (Ahura Mazda) and evil (Angra Mainyu). Closely associated with The Buddha (near-contemporary Eastern moral-cosmological revolutionary). For an intellectual contrast, see Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher of 'beyond good and evil' — Nietzsche appropriated Zarathustra's name for Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883) precisely to invert the original's moral cosmology — the historical Zoroaster founded the good-versus-evil framework Nietzsche's character announces the end of.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
The speaker expresses a deep desire to understand what is genuinely true and then align their daily life with that truth. It's not just intellectual curiosity, it's a commitment to let discovered truth shape action. Knowing without living by it is incomplete; living without knowing is blind. The plea is directed upward, asking a higher wisdom for clarity so that conduct and conviction match.
Relevance to Zoroaster
Zoroaster founded a faith built on Asha, meaning truth and cosmic order, and addressed Ahura Mazda as the supreme wise lord. His Gathas, the hymns attributed to him, repeatedly plead for insight and right action. As a reforming priest, he rejected ritual without ethics and taught that good thoughts, good words, and good deeds flow from knowing truth. This line captures his entire mission in one sentence.
The era
Zoroaster lived in ancient Iran, likely between 1500 and 1000 BCE, among pastoral tribes practicing polytheistic rituals, animal sacrifice, and intoxicant cults led by hereditary priests. Moral accountability was thin and power often decided right. His monotheistic reform, centered on one wise creator and personal ethical choice between truth and the lie, broke sharply from that world and later shaped Persian empires and influenced Jewish, Christian, and Islamic ideas.
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