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TRUTH

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see: "CANDOR"
see: "FACTS"
see: "STATISTICS"
see "CHARACTER" for other related links


A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who
believes there is no virtue or truth but on his
own side.
--attributed to Joseph Addison (1672—1719)
English essayist, poet, and dramatist.

The truth which makes men free is for the
most part the truth which men prefer
not to hear.
--Herbert Sebastian Agar (1897—1980)
American poet asnd writer.
_A Time for Greatness_ [1942]

An error is the more dangerous the more truth it contains.
--Henri Frιdιrick Amiel (1821—1881)
Swiss critic,
_Journal Intime_ [1883], entry of 12 November 1852

Truth is often attended with danger.
[Pericula veritati saepe contigua.]
--Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 330— c. 400)
Roman historian.

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Fear not the path of truth for the lack
of people walking on it.
--Arabian proverb


When you shoot an arrow of truth,
dip its point in honey.
--Arabian proverb


Examine what is said, not who speaks.
--Arabian Proverb

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While both [Plato and truth] are dear, piety
requires us to honor truth above our friends.
--Aristotle (384—322 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
_Nicomachean Ethics_, bk I, ch. I

A thing is not necessarily false because it is badly expressed, nor true
because it is expressed magnificently.
--Augustine, St. of Hippo (354—430)
Christian theologian and bishop of Hippo in
Roman Africa [396—430].

Not being known doesn't stop the
truth from being true.
--Richard Bach (1936— )
American writer.

A platitude is simply a truth repeated
until people get tired of hearing it.
--Stanley Baldwin (1867—1947)
British Conservative statesman and Prime Minister
[1923—1924], [1924—1929], and [1935—1937];
speech, House of Commons [29 May 1924].

Weary the path that does not challenge reason.
Doubt is an incentive to truth, and patient inquiry
leadeth the way.
--Hosea Ballou (1771—1852)
American theologian.

Truth is the cry of all, but the game of the few.
--George Berkeley (1685—1753)
Anglo-Irish philosopher.
_Siris_ [1744]

And ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free.
--Bible
"John" 8:32

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As a general rule, if you want to get at the truth,
hear both sides and believe neither.
--Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw] (1818—1885)
American humorist.


As scarce as truth is, the supply has always
been in excess of the demand.
--Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw] (1818—1885)
American humorist.
"Affurisms" _Josh Billings: His Sayings_ [1865]


It is better to know nothing than to
know what ain't so.
--attributed to Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw]
(1818-1885) American humorist

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I have found that nothing so deceives your
adversaries as telling them the truth.
--Otto von Bismarck (1815—1898)
Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Prussia 1862—1890.
He unified Germany with a series of successful wars and
became the first Chancellor 1871—1890 of the German Empire.

A truth that's told with bad intent,
Beats all the Lies you can invent.
--William Blake (1757—1827)
English poet.
"Auguries of Innocence", 1.53 [1789]

It was proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the
masses or majority, merely because the majority were the majority.
Truth does not change because it is or is not believed by a majority
of people.
--Giordano [Filippo] Bruno (1548—1600)
Italian philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician.
In Coulson Turnbull _Life and Teachings of Giordano Bruno_ [1913].

Tis strange — but true; for truth is always strange;
Stranger than fiction.
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
_Don Juan_ [1823], canto XIV, st. 101.

Can there be a more horrible object in existence than
an eloquent man not speaking the truth?
--Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881)
Scottish historian and political philosopher.
Address as Lord Rector of Edinburgh University [1866].

'Just the place for a Snark!' I have said it twice;
That alone should encourage the crew;
'Just the place for a Snark!' I have said it thrice;
What I tell you three times is true.
--Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832—1898)
English writer and logician.
"The Hunting of the Snark" [1872]

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Truth may be stretched, but it cannot be broken, and
always gets above falsehood, as oil does above water.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist.
_Don Quixote de la Mancha_ [1605-1615]


I must speak the truth, and
nothing but the truth.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist.
_Don Quixote de la Mancha_ [1605-1615]
Pt. 1 [1605], bk. 4, ch. 3.

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Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but
most of them pick themselves up and hurry
off as if nothing had happened.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].


The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it.
Ignorance may deride it. But in the end, there it
is.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].

-

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I only wish I could discover the truth
as easily as I can expose falsehood.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.


Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable
than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the
most sacred excellences and endowments of
the human mind.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.


Though the whole world grumble, I will speak my mind.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.
_De oretore_, 1.44, tr. E.W. Sutton and H. Rackham [1942]

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Tell the truth.
--Grover Cleveland (1837—1908)
22nd [1885-1889] and 24th [1893—1897]
President of the U.S..
On being asked by his campaign managers
what to do about the scandal centering on
his liason with Maria Halpin, quoted in
"Harper's Weekly" [16 August 1884].

Those who know the truth are not equal to those who love it.
--Confucius (551—479 B.C.)
K'ung Ch'iu, Chinese philosopher.

Habit with him was all the test of truth,
It must be right: I've done it from my youth.
--George Crabbe (1754—1832)
English poet.
"The Vicar", letter 3
_The Borough_ [1810]

If you would be a real seeker after truth, you must at least
once in your life doubt, as far as possible, all things.
--Renι Descartes (1596—1650)
French philosopher and mathematician.
_Discourse on Method and the Meditations_ [1637]

The truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind.
--Emily Dickinson (1830—1886)
American poet.

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard
of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than
to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.
--Frederick Douglass [Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey]
(c.1818—1895)
American abolitionist, reformer, and writer.

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember
what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible
without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others,
even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid
loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the
spirit.
--Max Ehrmann (1872—1945)
American lawyer.
"Desiderata" [1927]

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Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters
cannot be trusted with important matters.
--Albert Einstein (1879—1955)
German-born theoretical physicist;
won 1921 Nobel Prize for Photoelectric
Effect, best known for Theories of Relativity;
initiated U.S. nuclear program in WW II.


Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in
Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing
that they had always boasted of their devotion to the
cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were
silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers
whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their
love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced
in a few short weeks... Only the Church stood squarely across
the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I never had
any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great
affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the
courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral
freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised
I now praise unreservedly.
--Albert Einstein (1879—1955)
German-born theoretical physicist;
won 1921 Nobel Prize for Photoelectric
Effect, best known for Theories of Relativity;
initiated U.S. nuclear program in WW II;
"Time" (magazine) [(23 December 1940], p. 38.

-

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People only see what they are
prepared to see.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
In _The Book of Positive Quotations_.


Every violation of truth is not only a sort of
suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health
of human society.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
"Prudence" _Essays_, First Series [1841]


Whenever the truth is injured, defend it.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
_Journal_ [29 March 1834]

-

-

Whenever you have truth it must be
given with love, or the message and
the messenger will be rejected.
--Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869—1948)
Indian statesman and leader of the nationalistic
movement against British rule.


Truth never damages a cause that is just.
--Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869—1948)
Indian statesman and leader of the nationalistic
movement against British rule.

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An exaggeration is a truth
that has lost its temper.
--Kahlil Gibran (1883—1931)
Lebanese poet.
_Sand and Foam_ [1926]

Believe those who are seeking the
truth. Doubt those who find it.
--Andre Gide (1869—1951)
French novelist and critic who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947.

It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for
the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while
the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to
search for it.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749—1832)
German poet, novelist, and playwright.

Man associates ideas not according to logic or verifiable
exactitude, but according to his pleasure and interests.
It is for this reason that most truths are nothing but
prejudices.
--Rιmy de Gourmont (1858—1915)
French novelist, poet, playwright, and philosopher,
_The Dissociation of Ideas_ [1899]

Don't believe the man who tells you there
are two sides to every question. There is
only one side to the truth.
--William Peter HamiltonWilliam Hazlitt (1778—1830)
English essayist.
_Characteristics in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims_, 387 [1823]

It is a matter of perfect indifference where a thing
originated; the only question is: 'Is it true in and
for itself?'
--Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770—1831)
German philosopher.
_Philosophy of History_ [1832]

-

It is treason to sacrifice love of truth, intellectual honesty, loyalty to
the laws and methods of the mind, to any other interests, including
those of one's country. Whenever propaganda and conflict of
interests threatens to devalue, distort, and do violence to the
truth...it is our duty to resist and save the truth, since that is the
supreme article of our creed. The scholar who knowingly
speaks, writes, or teaches falsehood, who knowingly supports
lies and deceptions, not only violates organic principles. He
also, no matter how things may seem at the given moment,
does his people a grave disservice.
--Hermann Hesse (1877—1962)
German novelist, poet, and winner of the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946.
_Magister Ludi_ [1943], ch. 11 "The Circular Letter"


There is truth, my boy. But the doctrine you desire, absolute,
perfect dogma that alone provides wisdom, does not exist.
Nor should you long for a perfect doctrine, my friend. Rather,
you should long for the perfection of yourself. The deity is
within you, not in ideas and books. Truth is lived, not taught.
--Hermann Hesse (1877—1962)
German novelist, poet, and winner of the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946.
_Magister Ludi_ [1943], ch. 1 "The Call"

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There is no such thing as truth.
--Adolf Hitler (1889—1945)
German dictator.
_Mein Kampf_ (My Battle) [1925]

To most of us nothing is so invisible as an unpleasant
truth. Though it is held before our eyes, pushed under
our noses, rammed down our throats — we know it not.
--Eric Hoffer (1902—1983)
American longshoreman, philosopher,
and author who received the Presidential
Medal of Freedom in 1982.

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Rough work iconoclasm — but the only way to get at truth.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894)
American physician, poet, and essayist.
_The Professor at the Breakfast Table_ [1860]


Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble,
at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day,
like a foot-ball, and it will be round and full
at evening.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809—1894)
American physician, poet, and essayist.
_The Professor at the Breakfast Table_ [1860]

-

Above all, I would teach him to tell the truth . . . Truth-
telling, I have found, is the key to responsible citizenship.
The thousands of criminals I have seen in 40 years of law
enforcement have had one thing in common: Every
single one was a liar.
--J. Edgar Hoover (1895—1972)
Director of the FBI [1924—1972].

It is good policy to leave a few things unsaid.
--Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915)
American editor, publisher, and author who
died in the sinking of the "Lusitania."
_The Roycroft Dictionary and Book of Epigrams_ [1923]

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Veracity is the heart of morality.
--T.H. (Thomas Henry) Huxley (1825—1895)
English biologist {grandfather of Aldous Huxley}.


Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.
--T.H. (Thomas Henry) Huxley (1825—1895)
English biologist {grandfather of Aldous Huxley}.
_The Coming of Age of The Origin of Species_ [1880]

-

You should never wear your best
trousers when you go out to fight
for freedom and truth.
--Henrik Ibsen (1828—1906)
Norwegian playwright.
_An Enemy of the People_ [1882], Act V

The road to truth is long, and lined the entire
way with annoying bastards.
--Alexander Jablokov (1956— )
American science-fiction author.

Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself. She
is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and
has nothing to fear from the conflict unless disarmed
of her natural weapons, free argument and debate.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].

It is always the best policy to speak the truth —
unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good
liar.
--Jerome K Jerome (1859—1927)
English novelist and playwright.
_The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow;
A Book for an Idle Holiday_ [1892]

Do not throw your pearls before swine lest they
trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
--Jesus (A.D. 1st cent)
"Matthew" 7:6

Every man has a right to utter what he
thinks as truth, and every other man
has a right to knock him down for it.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.

Those who never retract their opinions love
themselves more than they love truth.
--Joseph Joubert (1754—1824)
French philosopher.

When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," — that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
--John Keats (1795—1821)
English poet.
"Ode on a Grecian Urn" [1819] in _Poems_ [1820]

How beautiful is that which [Aristotle] said in this
matter! We ought not to be ashamed of appreciating
the truth and of acquiring it wherever it comes from,
even if it comes from races distant and nations
different from us. For the seeker of truth nothing
takes precedence over the truth; and there is no
disparagement of the truth, nor belittling of him
who utters it or of him who conveys it. No one is
diminished by the truth; rather does the truth
ennoble all.
--al-Kindi (801—873)
Islamic philosopher known as
"The philosopher of the Arabs."

Truth, like the juice of the poppy, in small
quantities, calms men; in larger, heats and
irritates them, and is attended by fatal
consequences in excess.
--Walter Savage Landor (1775—1864)
English poet.
_Imaginary Conversations_ [1824—1853]

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.
--Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741—1801)
Swiss writer, Protestant pastor, and founder of physiognomics

The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside
from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify
error, if error seduce[s] them. Whoever can supply them
with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to
destroy their illusions is always their victim.
--Gustave Le Bon (1841—1931)
French social psychologist best known for his study of
the psychological characteristics of crowds [EB].
__The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind__ [1895]

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I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true.
I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live
by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody
that stands right, stand with him while he is right,
and part with him when he goes wrong.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].


Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].
Letter to Secretary Stanton, refusing to dismiss
Postmaster-General Montgomery Blair [18 July 1864].

-

It is one thing to show a man that he is in error,
and another to put him in possession of truth.
--John Locke (1632—1704)
English political and educational philosopher.
_An Essay concerning Human Understanding_ [1690]

Style will find reader and shape convictions, while
mere truth only gathers dust on the shelf.
--James Russell Lowell (1819—1891)
American poet, critic, essayist, and diplomat.
_Political Essays_ [1888]

Superstition, idolatry, and hypocrisy, have ample
wages, but truth goes a-begging.
--Martin Luther (1483—1546)
German Protestant theologian.
_Table Talk_, 53, [1566], tr. William Hazlitt [1857]

There is no other way of guarding oneself
against flattery than by letting men
understand that they will not offend
you by speaking the truth; but when
everyone can tell you the truth, you
lose their respect.
--Niccolς Machiavelli (1469—1527)
Florentine statesman and political philosopher.
_The Prince_ [written 1513] ch. 23

If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that
I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly
change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt
anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion
and ignorance which does harm.
--Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121—180)
Roman emperor [161—180] and Stoic philosopher.

Everything that is in agreement with our personal
desires seems true. Everything that is not puts us
in a rage.
--Andrι Maurois (1885—1967)
(pseudonym of Ιmile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog)
French author.

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The majority of men prefer delusion to truth.
It is easier to grasp.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956)
American journalist and literary critic.


The truth, to the overwhelming majority of mankind,
is indistinguishable from a headache.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956)
American journalist and literary critic.
Lecture before the Institute of Arts and Sciences,
Columbia University, New York City [4 January 1940].

-

We are too much like Pilate. We are always asking,
"What is truth?" and then crucifying the truth that
stands before our eyes.
--Thomas Merton (1915—1968)
American Trappist monk and author.
_No Man Is An Island_ [1955], Chapter 10, Section 3

There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot
be realised until personal experience has brought it
home.
--John Stuart Mill (1806—1873)
English philosopher and social reformer.

-

If falsehood, like truth, had but one face, we would be on
more equal terms. For we would consider the contrary of
what the liar said to be certain. But the opposite of truth
has a hundred thousand faces and an infinite field.
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592)
French moralist and essayist.


I speak truth, not my belly-full, but as
much as I dare; and I dare the more
the more I grow into years.
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592)
French moralist and essayist.


We must not always say everything, for that would
be folly; but what we say must be what we think.
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592)
French moralist and essayist.
"Of Presumption", _Essays_ [1588]


Our truth of nowadays is not what is, but
what others can be convinced of.
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592)
French moralist and essayist.
_Essays_ [1588], tr. Donald M. Frame [1958]

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Tell the truth when you can, and when you can't,
don't tell a lie.
--Bill Moyers (1934— )
American journalist and public commentator.
Recalling his father's dictum.

Let us be a little humble; let us think that the
truth may not perhaps be entirely with us.
--Jawaharlal Nehru (1889—1964)
Indian statesman.

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to
myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on
the seashore, and diverting myself now and then finding
a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary,
whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered
before me.
--Sir Isaac Newton (1642—1727)
English mathematician and physicist.
In David Brewster {ed.} _Memoirs of the Life, Writings,
and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton_ [1855], v. II, ch. 27.

Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
--Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900)
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.
_Human, all too Human_ [1878—1879]

Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did
not make you mad. There was truth and there was
untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against
the whole world, you were not mad.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
_Nineteen Eighty-Four_ [1949]

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Truth never yet fell dead in the streets; it has such
affinity with the soul of man, the seed however broadcast
will catch somewhere and produce its hundredfold.
--Theodore Parker (1810—1860)
American preacher and abolitionist.
_A Discourse of Matters Pertaining to Religion_ [1842]


Truth stood on one side and Ease on
the other; it has often been so.
--Theodore Parker (1810—1860)
American preacher and abolitionist.
_A Discourse of Matters Pertaining to Religion_ [1842]

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Qui ne gueule pas la verite, quand il sait la verite,
se fait le complice des menteurs et des faussaires.
(He who does not bellow the truth when he knows
the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars
and forgers.)
--Charles Pιguy (1873—1914)
French poet and essayist.
_Basic Verities_ [1943]
"Lettre du Provincial" [21 December 1899]

142. Nothing does Reason more Right, than the _Coolness_
of those that offer it: For Truth often suffers more by the
_Heat_ of its Defenders, than from the Arguments of its
Opposers.
--William Penn (1644—1718)
Quaker leader and advocate of religious
freedom who oversaw the founding of
the American Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania as a refuge for Quakers
and other religious minorities of Europe {E.B.}.
_Some Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims_, [1682]
[_italics_ by Penn]

They deem him their worse enemy
who tells them the truth.
--Plato (427?—347 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
_The Republic_, 4.426, tr. Benjamin Jowett [1894]

In excessive altercation, truth is lost.
--Publilius Syrus (85—43 B.C.)
Latin writer of mimes who was originally a slave.
_Maxims_

Speak the truth and shame the Devil.
--Franηois Rabelais (c. 1494— c. 1553]
French humanist, satirist, and physician.
_Gargantua and Pantagruel_ [1552]
bk. 5, author's prologue.

It is a very lonely life that a man leads, who
becomes aware of truths before their time.
--Thomas Brackett Reed (1839—1902
In an address c. 1899,
quoted in William Alexander Robinson
_Thomas B. Reed, Parliamentarian_ [1930].

What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the
wish to find out, which is its exact opposite.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.

All truth passes through three stages: First, it
is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed;
and Third, it is accepted as self-evident.
--attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860)
German philosopher.

Truth has no special time of its own.
Its hour is now — always.
--Albert Schweitzer (1875—1965)
Franco-German theologian, philosopher, and mission doctor.
_Out of My Life and Thought_ [1949]

I cannot tell how the truth may be;
I say the tale as 'twas said to me.
--Sir Walter Scott (1771—1832)
Scottish novelist and poet.
_Lay of the Last Minstrel_ [1805]

A writer who says there are no truths, or that
all truth is merely relative, is asking you not
to believe him. So don't.
--Roger Scruton (1944— )
British writer and philosopher.
_Modern Philosophy_

-

Tell truth and shame the devil.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Henry IV, Part One,_ III, i, 58 [1597]


This above all, to thine own self be true,
And it must follow as the night the day
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Hamlet_ [1601], I, iii, 78

-

Speak the truth but leave immediately after.
--Slovenian proverb

I would ask you to be thinking of the truth and not of Socrates:
agree with me, if I seem to you to be speaking the truth; or if not,
withstand me might and main, that I may not deceive you as well
as myself in my enthusiasm, and like the bee, leave my sting in
you before I die.
--Socrates (470?—399 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
In Plato (427?-327 B.C.), _Phaedo_,
91, tr. Benjamin Jowett [1894].

The simple step of a courageous individual
is not to take part in the lie. One word of
truth outweighs the world.
--Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918— )
Russian novelist.

-

If you want the truth to go round the world you must
hire an express train to pull it; but if you want a
lie to go round the world. it will fly; it is as light
as a feather, and a breath will carry it. It is well
said in the old proverb,"a lie will go round the world
while truth is putting its boots on."
--Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834—1892)
English nonconformist preacher.
_Gems from Spurgeon_ [1859]


If a crooked stick is before you, you need not
explain how crooked it is. Lay a straight one
down by the side of it, and the work is well
done. Preach the truth, and error will stand
abashed in its presence.
--Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834—1892)
English nonconformist preacher.

-

Truth in spirit, not truth to the letter, is the
true veracity.
--Robert Louis Stevenson (1850—1894)
Scottish essayist, poet, and novelist.
_Virginibus Puerisque_ [1881], "Truth of Intercourse"

Speaking the truth is a luxury few people can afford.
--Thomas Szasz (1920— )
American psychiatrist.
"Language", _The Second Sin_ [1973]

Do not be influenced by the importance of the writer,
and whether his learning be great or small, but let
the love of pure truth draw you to read. Do not
inquire, "Who said this?" but pay attention to what
is said.
--Thomas a' Kempis (1380—1471)
German ascetical writer.
_The Imitation of Christ_ [c. 1420]
Book 1, Ch. 4: "On Prudence in Action"

-

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat
at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and
obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and
I went away hungry from the inhospitable board.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
_Walden_ [1854], "Conclusion"


Some circumstantial evidence is very strong,
as when you find a trout in the milk.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
Entry dated 11 November 1854, in his _Journal_ [1906].


You do not get a man's most effective criticism
until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed
with some bitterness.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
Entry dated 15 March 1854 in his _Journal_ [1906].

-

-

I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest
complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it
be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they
have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught
to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of
their lives.
--Leo Tolstoy (1828—1910)
Russian novelist.
_What Is Art?_ [1898]


When I have one foot in the grave, I will tell
the whole truth about women. I shall tell it,
jump into my coffin, pull the lid over me and
say, 'Do what you like now.'
--Leo Tolstoy (1828—1910)
Russian novelist.


The hero of my tale, whom I love with all the power of
my soul, whom I have tried to portray in all his beauty,
who has been, is, and will be beautiful, is Truth.
--Leo Tolstoy (1828—1910)
Russian novelist.
_Sevastopol In May 1855_

-

I never give them hell. I just tell the
truth, and they think it's hell.
--Harry S. Truman (1884—1972)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1945-1953].

-

Never tell the truth to those unworthy of it.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.


If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.


Most writers regard the truth as their most
valuable possession, and therefore are most
economical in it's use.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.


I have seen several entirely sincere people who thought
they were (permanent) Seekers after Truth. They sought
diligently, persistently, carefully, cautiously, profoundly,
with perfect honesty and nicely adjusted judgment — until
they believed that without doubt or question they had
found the Truth. That was the end of the search. The man
spent the rest of his life hunting up shingles wherewith to
protect his Truth from the weather. If he was seeking
after political Truth he found it in one or another of
the hundred political gospels which govern men in the
earth; if he was seeking after the Only True Religion
he found it in one or another of the three thousand
that are on the market. In any case, when he found
the Truth he sought no further; but from that day
forth, with his soldering-iron in one hand and his
bludgeon in the other he tinkered its leaks and
reasoned with objectors.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.


Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing the
matter with this, except that it ain't so.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.


You don't know about me without you have read a book
by the name of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"; but
that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark
Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There were things
which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
Opening lines of _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ [1884].

-

Few people have enough character to endure the truth,
and to speak it.
--Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715—1747)
French moralist and essayist.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.
--Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (1694—1778)
French writer and philosopher.
Letter to Cardinal de Bernis [23 April 1761].

All the true things I am about to
tell you are outrageous lies.
--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922—2007)
American novelist and short-story writer.

There are no whole truths. All truths are
half-truths. It is trying to treat them
as whole truths that plays the devil.
--Alfred North Whitehead (1861—1947)
British philosopher and mathematician.
_Dialogues_ [1954]

The pure and simple truth is rarely
pure, and never simple.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.
_The Importance of Being Earnest_ [1895]

If you're going to tell people the truth,
be funny or they'll kill you.
--Billy Wilder (1906—2002)
Austrian-born American film director and screenwriter.

Flattery makes friends and truth makes enemies.
--Yiddish proverb

Many people love falsehood and only a few love truth.
For it is possible to love falsehood truly, but it
is impossible to love truth falsely.
--Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak of Pshis'cha

-

The collision between truth and the world can
only have one outcome, since the world will put
on any mask, stoop to any deception, to protect
itself, and truth cannot...All the great stories
have the wrong ending.
--Unknown, in the "New Yorker" [28 October 1991]

If a thousand people say something foolish,
it's still foolish. Truth is never dependent
upon consensus of opinion.
--Unknown

-

TO TELL THE TRUTH...

-----

apothegm (noun) ['ζ-pκ-them]
A terse saying that sums up a philosophical insight or conclusion;
a maxim, an aphorism. A short, witty, and instructive saying.
Synonyms: adage, aphorism, maxim, proverb, saw.

ostensible [ah-STEN-suh-bul], adjective:
Represented or appearing to be true, but not necessarily so.
Ex.: After an epidemic of yellow fever in 1798, in which coffins
had been sold by itinerant vendors on street corners, Burr
established the Manhattan Company, with the ostensible aim
of bringing clean water to the city from the Bronx River but
in fact designed as a front for the creation of New York's
second bank, rivalling Hamilton's Bank of New York.
--"Soaking the poor" _The Economist_ [16 March 2000]

sententious (adjective)
1: Using or marked by pompous, high-flown moralizing.
2: Using many truisms or maxims.
3: Rich in pointed, concise truths.
Related: meaningful
Derived: sententiously, adv. ; sententiousness, n.

verisimilitude [ver-uh-suh-MIL-uh-tood]; noun:
The appearance of truth; the quality of seeming to be true.

veritable [VER-ih-tuh-bul], adjective:
Agreeable to truth or to fact; actual; real; true; genuine.


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