Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
Adler Alfred 1870-1937
The problems of Neurosis
The truth is often a terrible weapon of aggression. It is possible to lie, and even to murder, for the truth.
Agar Herbert 1897-1980
A Time for Greatness
The truth which makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.
Anonymous
Hell is truth seen too late.
Anonymous
Some people handle the truth carelessly; others never touch it at all.
Anonymous
Truth is the daughter of time.
Armstrong Sir Robert 1927-
(during ‘Spycatcher' trial)
It contains a misleading impression, not a lie. It was being economical with the truth.
Arnold Matthew 1822-1888
‘Isolation. To Marguerite'
This truth - to prove, and make thine own:
‘Thou hast been, shalt be, art, alone'.
Ashton-Warner Sylvia
I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through
my love for truth; and truth rewarded me.
Austen Jane 1775-1817
Pride and Prejudice
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in
possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
Bacon Francis 1561-1626
The Advancement of Learning
So let great authors have their due, as time, which is the authors, be not
deprived of his due, which is further and further to discover truth.
Bacon Francis 1561-1626
Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.
Balfour Arthur James 1848-1930
Letter to Mrs. Drew
It is unfortunate, considering that enthusiasm moves the world,
that so few enthusiasts can be trusted to speak the truth.
Berkeley George 1685-1753
Siris
Truth is the cry of all, but the game of the few.
The Bible (Authorized Version)
New Testament: St John ch.8v.32
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
The Bible (Authorized Version)
New Testament: St John ch.14 v.6
I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man
cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Billings Josh 1818-1885
As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.
Blake William 1757-1827
‘Auguries of Innocence'
A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.
Bohr Niels 1885-1962
The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the
opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
Braque Georges 1882-1963
Le Jour et la nuit: Cahiers
Truth exists; only lies are invented.
Browning Robert 1812-1889
Aristophanes' Apology
But, thanks to wine-lees and democracy,
We've still our stage where truth calls spade a spade!
Browning Robert 1812-1889
‘Fifine at the Fair'
So absolutely good is truth, truth never hurts
The teller.
Carrel Alexis 1873-1944
A few observations and much reasoning lead to error; many
observations and a little reasoning to truth.
Chaucer Geoffrey c.1343-1400
The Canterbury Tales
Trouthe is the hyeste thyng that man may kepe.
Clinton Hillary
We've been accused of everything, including murder. The best
thing to do is to be patient and the truth will come out.
Coffin Rev. William Sloane 1924-
The world is too dangerous for anything but truth,
and too small for anything but love.
Cowper William 1731-1800
‘Hope'
And differing judgements serve but to declare
That truth lies somewhere, if we knew but
where.
CUDLIPP Hugh 1913-
(of William Randolph Hearst)
Truth for him was a moving target; he never aimed
for the bull and rarely pierced the outer ring.
Davies Robertson 1913-1995
The love of truth lies at the root of much humour.
Dryden John 1631-1700
Religio Laici
A man is to be cheated into passion, but to be reasoned into truth.
Einstein Albert 1879-1955
If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
Emerson Ralph Waldo 1803-1882
God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take
which you please; you can never have both.
Forster W.E. 1878-1969
What is the use of lying when truth, well distributed, serves the same purpose?
Freud Sigmund 1856-1939
From error to error one discovers the entire truth.
Frye Northrop 1912-1991
Beauty and truth may be attributes of good writing, but
if the writer deliberately aims at truth, he is likely to find
that what he has hit is the didactic.
Garcia Jerry d.1995
Truth is something you stumble into when you think you're going some place else.
Giraudoux Jean 1882-1944
La Guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu
All of us here know there's no better way of exercising the imagination
than the study of law. No poet ever interpreted nature as freely as a
lawyer interprets the truth.
Gladstone W.E. 1809-1898
I will venture to say, that upon the one great class of subjects, the largest and the most
weighty of them all, where the leading and determining considerations that ought to
lead to a conclusion are truth, justice, and humanity - upon these, gentlemen, all the
world over, I will back the masses against the classes.
Goldsmith Oliver 1730-1774
The Deserted Village
Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway,
And fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray.
Hazlitt William 1778-1830
One truth discovered, one pang of regret at not being able to express
it, is better than all the fluency and flippancy in the world.
Hellman Lillian 1907-1984
Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.
Henry Patrick 1736-1799
For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to
know the whole truth - to know the worst and provide for it.
Holmes Oliver Wendell 1809-1894
Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at the truth.
Howe Julia Ward 1819-1910
„Battle Hymn of the Republic"
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
Hume David 1711-1776
A Treatise upon Human Nature
Poets ... though liars by profession, always endeavour
to give and air of truth to their fictions.
Huxley Aldous 1894-1963
The greatest triumphs of propaganda have been accomplished, not by doing
something, but by refraining from doing. Great is truth, but still greater,
from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.
James William 1842-1910
The Varieties of Religious Experience
There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it.
Johnson Samuel 1709-1784
Among the calamities of wars may be justly numbered the diminution of the love
of truth by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.
Johnson Samuel 1709-1784
Boswell - Life
Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other
man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.
Johnson Samuel 1709-1784
I deny the lawfulness of telling a lie to a sick man for fear of alarming him; you
have no business with consequences, you are to tell the truth.
Johnson Samuel 1709-1784
The man who is asked by an author what he thinks of his work is put
to the torture and is not obliged to speak the truth.
Johnson Vera
There's such a thing as moderation, even in telling the truth.
Jonson Ben c. 1573-1637
The Alchemist
If I have outstripped
An old man's gravity, or stict canon, think
What a young wife and a good brain may do:
Stretch age's truth sometimes, and crack it too.
Jowett Benjamin 1817-1893
We have sought truth, and sometimes perhaps found it. But have we had any fun?
Keats John 1795-1821
Letter to Benjamin Bailey
I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of imagination -
what the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth - whether it existed before or not.
Keats John 1795-1821
Letter to Benjamin Bailey
I have never yet been able to perceive how anything can be known for
truth by consecutive reasoning - and yet it must be.
Keblle John 1792-1866
The Christian Year ‘Septuagesima'
There is a book, who runs may read,
Which heavenly truth imparts,
And all the lore its scholars need,
Pure eyes and Christian hearts.
Kingsley Charles 1819-1875
Truth, for its own sake, had never been a virtue with the Roman clergy.
Krishnamurti Jiddu 1895-1986
Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by
any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.
Kumar Satish 1937-
„Prayer for Peace"
Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth.
Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust.
Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace.
Let peace fill our heart, our world, our universe.
Langland William c.1330-1400
The Vision of Piers Plowman
Whan alle tresors arn tried, Truthe is the beste.
Lavater Johann Kaspar
He who, when called upon to speak a disagreeable truth, tells it boldly and has done, is
both bolder and milder than he who nibbles in a low voice and never ceases nibbling.
Lawrence D.H. 1885-1930
Art-speech is the only truth. An artist is usually a damned liar but his art, if it be art, will
tell you the truth of his day. And that is all that matters. Away with eternal truth. The
truth lives from day to day, and the marvellous Plato of yesterday is chiefly bosh today.
Leacock Stephen 1869-1944
A half truth, like half a brick, is always more forcible as
an argument than a whole one. It carries better.
Lessing G.E. 1729-1781
Eine Duplik
If God were to hold out enclosed in His right hand all Truth, and in His left hand just the active search for Truth, though with the condition that I should always err therein, and
He should say to me: Choose! I should humbly take His left hand and say: Father! Give
me this one; absolute Truth belongs to Thee alone.
Lichtenberg G.C. 1742-1799
One can live in this world on soothsaying but not on truth saying.
Locke John 1632-1704
An Essay concerning Human Understanding
It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of truth.
Locke John 1632-1704
An Essay concerning Human Understanding
Reason is natural revelation, whereby the eternal Father of light, and fountain of
all knowledge communicates to mankind that portion of truth which he has laid
within the reach of their natural faculties.
Locke John 1632-1704
An Essay concerning Human Understanding
Crooked things may be as stiff and unflexible as straight: and men may be as positive in error as in truth.
Lowell James Russell 1819-1891
‘The Present Crisis'
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne, -
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
Lowell James Russell 1819-1891
‘The Present Crisis'
New occasions teach new duties: Time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth.
Luther Martin 1483-1546
Peace if possible, but truth at any rate.
Macaulay Baron (Thomas Babington) 1800-1859
‘Essay on Athenian Orators'
The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion.
Machiavelli Niccolo 1469-1527
The Prince
There is no other way for securing yourself against flatteries except that men understand that they do not offend you by telling you the truth; but when everybody can tell you the truth, you fail to get respect.
Meredith George 1828-1909
Caricature is rough truth.
Meredith George 1828-1909
The well of true wit is truth itself.
Merton Thomas 1915-1968
The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you
try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant
things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt.
Miller Henry 1891-1980
I struggled in the beginning. I said I was going to write the truth, so help me God. And
I thought I was. I found I couldn't. Nobody can write the absolute truth.
Milton John 1608-1674
Areopagitica
Let her [Truth] and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth
put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?
Milton John 1608-1674
Paradise Lost
Servant of God, well done, well hast thou fought
The better fight, who single has maintained
Against revolted multitudes the cause
Of truth, in word mightier than they in arms.
Milton John 1608-1674
The Reason of Church Government
Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies.
Montaigne Michel de 1533-1592
I speak the truth, not so much as I would, but as much
as I dare; and I dare a little more, as I grow older.
Morley Lord John 1838-1923
It makes all the difference in the world whether we put
truth in the first place, or in the second place.
Murdoch Dame Iris 1919-
Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals
Insight into the truth is the flash which in live conversation upon
serious matters, carries one beyond words.
Newton Sir Isaac 1642-1727
O don't know what I may seem to the world, but as to myself, I seem to have been only
like a boy playing on the sea-shore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble
or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
Nicholson Jack 1937-
You only lie to two people; your girlfriend and the police. Everyone else you tell the truth to.
Pasternak Boris 1890-1960
In every generation there has to be some fool who will
speak the truth as he sees it.
Péguy Charles 1873-1914
Basic Verities
He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth
makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.
Picasso Pablo 1881-1973
We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that
makes us realize truth.
Planck Max 1858-1947
A Scientific Autobiography
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them
see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation
grows up that is familiar with it.
Pliny (The Elder) AD 23-79
Natural History
In vino veritas.
Truth comes out in wine.
Pope Alexander 1688-1744
An Essay on Man
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony, not understood;
All partial evil, universal good:
And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,
One truth is clear, ‘Whatever IS, IS RIGHT'.
Proverbs and Sayings
Arab
It is a good thing to speak the truth: but it is a better
thing to know the truth and to talk about date stones.
Proverbs and Sayings
German
Truth has a handsome countenance but torn garments.
Proverbs and Sayings
Irish
Seeing's believing - but feeling is God's own truth.
Proverbs and Sayings
Italian
Bellow the navel there is neither religion nor truth.
Proverbs and Sayings
Jewish
Truth is the safest lie.
Proverbs and Sayings
Medieval
There should be no enmity among seekers after the truth.
Proverbs and Sayings
Persian
The man who speaks the truth is always at ease.
Proverbs and Sayings
Turkish
If you speak the truth you have a foot in the stirrup.
Ralegh Sir Walter 1552-1618
The History of the World
Whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth
too near the heels, it may happily strike out his teeth.
Ralegh Sir Walter 1552-1618
It is not truth, but opinion that can travel the world without a passport.
Raphael Frederic 1931-
Truth may be stranger than fiction, but fiction is truer.
Roethke Theodore 1908-1963
‘The Adamant'
Truth never is undone;
Its shafts remain.
Rogers Will 1879-1935
If you ever injected truth into politics you would have no politics.
Saki (Hector Hugh Monro) 1870-1916
The Unbearable Bassington
We all know that Prime Ministers are wedded to the truth, but
like other married couples they sometimes live apart.
Salmon Andrew
There is only one truth, steadfast, healing, salutary, and that is the absurd.
Santayana George 1863-1952
The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who have loved it.
Sartre Jean-Paul 1905-1980
Words
Like all dreamers, I mistook disenchantment for truth.
Schopenhauer Arthur 1788-1860
Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized. In the first it is ridiculed,
in the second it is opposed, in the third it is regarded as self-evident.
Scott Paul 1920-1978
The truth did not come to me suddenly,
It came quietly, circumspectly, snuffling and whimpering
Looking to be let in many times before.
Seneca c.4 BC-AD 65
Time discovered truth.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Coriolanus
Custom calls me to ‘t"
What custom wills, in all things should we do't,
The dust on antique time would lie unswept,
And mountainous error be too highly heaped
For truth to o'erpeer.
Shakespeare Willaim 1564-1616
Hamlet
Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
The Merchant of Venice
Truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
The Rape of Lucrece
Time's glory is to calm contending kings,
To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Sonnet 138
When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her, though I know she lies.
Shamgar Judge Meir
The complete truth is not the prerogative of the human judge.
Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr 1918-
No one can bar the road to truth, and to advance its cause I'm ready to accept even death.
Steele Sir Richard 1672-1729
When one has no design but to speak plain truth, he
may say a great in a very narrow compass.
Stevenson Adlai 1900-1965
Let's talk sense to the American people. Let's tell them
the truth, that there are no gains without pains.
Stevenson Adlai 1900-1965
If they [the Republicans] will stop telling lies about the Democrats,
we will stop telling the truth about them.
Stone I.F. 1907-1989
Every emancipation has in it the seeds of a new
slavery, and every truth easily becomes a lie.
Stoppard Tom 1937-
Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It's
the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any
difference so long as it is honoured.
Stoppard Tom 1937-
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
All your life you live so close to truth, it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye,
and when something nudges it into outline it is like being ambushed by a grotesque.
Tagore Sir Rabindranath 1861-1941
Fireflies
Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand
With a grip that kills it.
Tennyson Alfred Lord 1809-1892
‘The Grandmother'
That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright,
But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.
Tennyson Alfred Lord 1809-1892
‘Locksley Hall'
This is truth the poet sings,
That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.
Tennyson Alfred Lord 1809-1892
In Memoriam A.H.H.
I held it truth, with him who sings
To one clear harp in divers tones,
That men may rise on stepping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things.
Tennyson Alfred Lord 1809-1892
‘Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington'
Who never sold the truth to serve the hour,
Nor paltered with Eternal God for power.
Thackeray William Makepeace 1811-1863
The History of Henry Esmond
We love being in love, that's the truth on't.
Thoreau Henry David 1817-1862
Between whom there is hearty truth, there is love.
Thoreau Henry David 1817-1862
It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak, and another to hear.
Tillich Paul 1886-1965
The passion for truth is silenced by answers which
have the weight of undisputed authority.
Truman Harry S. 1884-1972
I never give them [the public] hell. I just tell the truth, and they think it is hell.
Twain Mark 1835-1910
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.
Twain Mark 1835-1910
Following the Equator
Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.
Twain Mark 1835-1910
If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
Villiers George 1628-1687
The Dramatic Works
The world is made up for the most part of fools and
knaves, both irreconcilable foes to truth.
Voltaire 1694-1778
‘Première Lettre sur Oedipe'
We owe respect to the living; to the dead we owe only truth.
Wesley John 1703-1791
Sermons on Several Occasions
I design plain truth for plain people.
West Jessamyn
Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.
Wilde Oscar 1854-1900
The Importance of Being Earnest
The truth is rarely pure, and never simple.
Wilder Thornton 1897-1975
The unencumbered stage encourages the truth operative in everyone. The less
seen, the more heard. The eye is the enemy of the ear in real drama.
Woolf Virginia 1882-1941
The first duty of a lecturer - to hand you after an hour's discourse a nugget of pure truth to
wrap up between the pages of your notebooks and keep on the mantelpiece for ever.
Yeats William Butler 1865-1939
‘The Coming of Wisdom with Time'
Though leaves are many, the root is one;
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;
Now I may wither into the truth.