Quotes about truth

Too much truth is uncouth.

— Franklin P. Adams

The truth is often a terrible weapon of aggression. It is possible to lie, and even to murder, for the truth.

— Alfred Adler

If ever we hear a case of lying, we must look for a severe parents. A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous.

— Alfred Alder

That in the beginning when the world was young there were a great many thoughts but no such thing as truth. Man made the truths himself and each truth was a composite of a great many vague thoughts. All about in the world were truths and they were all beautiful.

— Sherwood Anderson

The trouble with lying and deceiving is that their efficiency depends entirely upon a clear notion of the truth that the liar and deceiver wishes to hide. In this sense, truth, even if it does not prevail in public, possesses an ineradicable primacy over all falsehoods.

— Hannah Arendt

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.

— Aristotle

Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.

— Aristotle

A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.

— St. Augustine

One universe made up all that is; and one God in it all, and one principle of being, and one law, the reason shared by all thinking creatures, and one truth.

— Marcus Aurelius

We catch on to the truth and technique of expectation in those rare moments when we are stirred by an awareness of a guidance seemingly higher and greater than our own, when for a little while we are taken over by a force and an intelligence above and beyond those commonly felt. Confident and free, filled with wonder and ready acceptance, we permit ourselves to be taken over by our unquestioning self.

— Dr. Marcus Bach

Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah. [The Savior's Manual]

— Richard Bach

Not being known doesn't stop the truth from being true.

— Richard Bach

Error always addresses the passions and prejudices; truth scorns such mean intrigue, and only addresses the understanding and the conscience.

— Azel Backus

Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion.

— Francis Bacon

It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the sea: a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to standing upon the vantage ground of truth... and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below.

— Francis Bacon

What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.

— Francis Bacon

You never find yourself until you face the truth.

— Pearl Bailey

A platitude is simply a truth repeated till people get tired of hearing it.

— James Baldwin

We take our shape, it is true, within and against that cage of reality bequeathed us at our birth; and yet is precisely through our dependence on this reality that we are most endlessly betrayed.

— James Baldwin

It is unfortunate, considering that enthusiasm moves the world, that so few enthusiasts can be trusted to speak the truth.

— Arthur James Balfour

Falsehood is cowardice, the truth courage.

— Hosea Ballou

There's a little truth in all jive, and a little jive in all truth.

— Leonard Barnes

With the truth, you need to get rid of it as soon as possible and pass it on to someone else. As with illness, this is the only way to be cured of it. The person who keeps truth in his hands has lost.

— Jean Baudrillard

Nothing is poorer than a truth expressed as it was thought. Committed to writing in such cases, it is not even a bad photograph. Truth wants to be startled abruptly, at one stroke, from her self-immersion, whether by uproar, music or cries for help.

— Walter Benjamin

Between truth and the search for it, I choose the second.

— Bernard Berenson

There is an element of truth in every idea that lasts long enough to be called corny.

— Irving Berlin

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

— Bible

Prove all things, hold fast to that which is true.

— Bible

Seek and you will find.

— Bible

The first wrote, wine is the strongest. The second wrote, the king is strongest. The third wrote, women are strongest: but above all things truth beareth away the victory. [Esdras 3:10]

— Bible

The truth shall set you free.

— Bible

Truth -- An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance.

— Ambrose Bierce

As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.

— Josh Billings

I will tell you the truth as soon as I figure it out.

— Wayne Birmingham

When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.

— Otto Von Bismarck

The truth told with bad intent Beats all the lies you can invent

— William Blake

When I tell any truth it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those who do.

— William Blake

For everything exists and not one sigh nor smile nor tear, one hair nor particle of dust, not one can pass away.

— William Blake

A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.

— William Blake

Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believed.

— William Blake

The great seal of truth is simplicity.

— Herman Boerhaave

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

— Niels Bohr

There are trivial truths and the great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true.

— Niels Bohr

Truth alone wounds.

— Napoleon Bonaparte

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.

— Ludwig Borne

Eclecticism. Every truth is so true that any truth must be false.

— Francis H. Bradley

It's essential to tell the truth at all times. This will reduce life's pain. Lying distorts reality. All forms of distorted thinking must be corrected.

— John Bradshaw

The stream of time sweeps away errors, and leaves the truth for the inheritance of humanity.

— George Brandes

There is an abiding beauty which may be appreciated by those who will see things as they are and who will ask for no reward except to see.

— Vera Brittain

A man may be in as just possession of truth as of a city, and yet be forced to surrender.

— Sir Thomas Browne

Truth lies within ourselves: it takes no rise from outward things, whatever you may believe. There is an inmost center in us all, where truth abides in fullness and to Know rather consists in opening out a way whence the imprisoned splendor may escape than in effecting entry for light supposed to be without.

— Robert Browning

Truth never hurts the teller.

— Robert Browning

Truth gets well if she is run over by a locomotive, while error dies of lockjaw if she scratches her finger.

— William C. Bryant

One of the sublimest things in the world is plain truth.

— Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

There is no such source of error as the pursuit of truth.

— Samuel Butler

For truth is precious and divine, too rich a pearl for carnal swine.

— Samuel Butler

Truth is always strange, stranger than fiction.

— Lord Byron

We call first truths those we discover after all the others.

— Albert Camus

A few observation and much reasoning lead to error; many observations and a little reasoning to truth.

— Alexis Carrel

What I tell you three times is true.

— Lewis Carroll

Truth may be stretched, but cannot be broken, and always gets above falsehood, as oil does above water.

— Miguel De Cervantes

Truth will rise above falsehood as oil above water.

— Miguel De Cervantes

You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Truth must necessarily be stranger than fiction, for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.

— Winston Churchill

In everything truth surpasses the imitation and copy.

— Marcus T. Cicero

See it like it is!

— Herb Cohen

It is your work to clear away the mass of encumbering material of thoughts, so that you may bring into plain view the precious thing at the center of the mass.

— Robert Collier

Theories are private property, but truth is common stock.

— Charles Caleb Colton

The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.

— Charles Caleb Colton

It is man that makes truth great, not truth that makes man great.

— Confucius

Everybody says it, and what everybody says must be true.

— James F. Cooper

Ceremony leads her bigots forth, prepared to fight for shadows of no worth. While truths, on which eternal things depend, can hardly find a single friend.

— William Cowper

Our job is only to hold up the mirror -- to tell and show the public what has happened.

— Walter Cronkite

The pursuit of truth will set you free; even if you never catch up with it.

— Clarence Darrow

Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat tails.

— Clarence Darrow

The love of truth lies at the root of much humor.

— Robertson Davies

You never see what you want to see, forever playing to the gallery.

— Robertson Davies

Part of my job is to train people to break down an involved question into a series of simple matters. Then we can all act intelligently

— Richard Deupree

I am always going to be true to myself.

— Princess of Wales Diana

There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth.

— Charles Dickens

Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it.

— Emily Dickinson

Tell the truth, but tell it slant.

— Emily Dickinson

We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.

— Denis Diderot

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so you apologize for truth.

— Benjamin Disraeli

Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

— Benjamin Disraeli

Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time.

— Benjamin Disraeli

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Truth disappears with the telling of it.

— Lawrence Durrell

Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.

— Meister Eckhart

All these constructions and the laws connecting them can be arrived at by the principle of looking for the mathematically simplest concepts and the link between them.

— Albert Einstein

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.

— Albert Einstein

Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.

— Albert Einstein

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

— Albert Einstein

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

— Albert Einstein

Things are more like they are now than they have ever been before.

— Dwight D. Eisenhower

The greater the truth the greater the libel.

— Lord Ellenborough

Truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Truth is the summit of being; justice is the application of it to affairs.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson