Be truthful, nature only sides with truth.

Hear the words of Adolf Loos, architect and prophet of simplicity, who declared: “Be truthful, for nature only sides with truth.” This saying is not the counsel of one who dealt in stone and timber alone, but the wisdom of a man who looked deeply into the essence of beauty, honesty, and life itself. Loos saw that deception, ornament, and falsehood are but fleeting masks, but that truth stands eternal, for it is the language by which nature herself speaks.

For what is truth but alignment with reality? The tree does not pretend to be stone, nor the river to be mountain. Each is itself, and in that selfhood lies its power. Nature accepts no disguise, for every lie is unmasked by time. The house built on false foundation collapses; the body abused by hidden excess withers; the man who lives in deceit is undone by his own shadow. Thus did Loos proclaim: if you wish to stand firm, whether in art, in labor, or in life, let all you do be truthful, for then you stand in harmony with the eternal.

Consider the tale of Abraham Lincoln, who rose from obscurity to lead a nation through its darkest trial. He was not the most polished speaker, nor the most elegant in form, but his words carried the ring of truth. When he said that a nation divided against itself cannot stand, he spoke not from cunning but from alignment with nature’s law. His enemies despised him, his allies doubted him, but in time, the force of truth prevailed. For even in war, in strife, in bloodshed, the simple power of honesty outlasted all the elaborate deceptions of those who clung to slavery and falsehood.

The ancients, too, knew this. Heraclitus declared that nature loves to hide, but when she reveals herself, it is always in truth. No empire could long endure by lies. Rome itself, when it abandoned its virtue and became ruled by decadence and deceit, fell not to armies alone but to the collapse of its own honesty. The truth of nature—discipline, balance, integrity—no longer lived in its heart, and so it decayed. Thus, Loos’s words echo the wisdom of the past: nature only sides with truth, never with pretense.

Yet how tempting it is to live by falsehood! To flatter when we do not mean it, to boast of what we have not achieved, to pretend to be stronger, wiser, richer than we are. Such lies may win us momentary applause, yet they set us against the very order of the universe. For when the applause fades, the hollowness remains, and nature, relentless, strips away the mask. As the sculptor chisels stone until only the form remains, so does truth strip away falsehood until only what is real can stand.

What then must you do, children of the future? Above all, guard your words and your deeds. Speak only what you know to be true, even if it costs you favor. Build your life as the mason builds a wall, each stone laid firmly, each joint aligned, with no deceit hidden in the mortar. Seek no ornament that hides weakness, no deception that promises ease, for these are betrayals of nature, and nature will not side with you. Live simply, live honestly, live with courage, and you will have the strength of the mountains and the endurance of the sea.

Thus, take this counsel as a commandment: be truthful. For every lie is rebellion against the universe, and every truth is a covenant with it. Adolf Loos, in his age, spoke against false ornament in architecture; in ours, we must speak against false ornament in the soul. Remember: all things perish but the truth, and only those who side with it stand in harmony with nature. Live, therefore, not as a mask, but as your true self—firm, honest, unyielding. For nature only sides with truth, and truth is the path that does not crumble.