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Truth quotes

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“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.'” Martin Luther King, Jr., “I have a Dream” - 28 August 1963

“If it is not right, do not do it: if it is not true, do not say it.” Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations” - c. 170 - 180

“The heart lies and the head plays tricks with us, but the eyes see true.” George R. R. Martin, “A Game of Thrones” - 1996

“Scientific truth is beyond loyalty and disloyalty.” Isaac Asimov, “Foundation” - 1951

“Diamonds are found only in the dark places of the earth; truths are found only in the depths of thought.” Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables” - 1862

“The quick pain of truth can pass away, but the slow, eating agony of a lie is never lost.” John Steinbeck, “East of Eden” - 1952

“Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” - 1946

“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov” - 1880

“He who cannot lie, doth not know what truth is.” Friedrich Nietzsche, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” - 1891

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest” - 1895

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence.” Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” - 1845

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” Henry David Thoreau, “Walden” - 1854

“Those truths which we know are very few in comparison with those which we do not know.” Galileo Galilei, “Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany” - 1615

“When a man really tells the truth, the first truth he tells is that he himself is a liar.” G. K. Chesterton, “What's Wrong with the World” - 1910

“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.” Mark Twain, “Following the Equator” - 1897

“Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable.” Albert Camus, “The Myth of Sisyphus” - 1942

“Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe.” Henry David Thoreau, “Walden” - 1854

“I saw that a man of truth must also be a man of care.” Mahatma Gandhi, “The Story of my Experiments with Truth” - 1929

“Nothing in the world is harder than speaking the truth and nothing easier than flattery.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “Crime and Punishment” - 1867

“It is in the thick of a calamity that one gets hardened to the truth, in other words, to silence.” Albert Camus, “The Plague” - 1947

“The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.” Albert Einstein, “The world as I see it” - 1949

“My uniform experience has convinced me that there is no other God than Truth.” Mahatma Gandhi, “The Story of my Experiments with Truth” - 1929

“Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find truth, for it is hard to discover and hard to attain.” Heraclitus, “On Nature” - c. 535 – c. 475 BCE

“Sometimes it is easier to see clearly into the liar than into the man who tells the truth. Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object.” Albert Camus, “The Fall” - 1956

“Wars produce many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true.” Ulysses S. Grant, “Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant” - 1885

“Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.” Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia” - 1785

“Touch comes before sight, before speech. It is the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth.” Margaret Atwood, “The Blind Assassin” - 2000

“The truth may be puzzling or counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held beliefs. Experiment is how we get a handle on it.” Carl Sagan, “The Demon-Haunted World” - 1995

“Facts mean truth, and once we adhere to truth, the law comes to our aid naturally.” Mahatma Gandhi, “The Story of my Experiments with Truth” - 1929

“A woman's standard of truthfulness was tacitly held to be lower: she was the subject creature, and versed in the arts of the enslaved.” Edith Wharton, “The Age of Innocence” - 1920

“The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read.” Margaret Atwood, “The Blind Assassin” - 2000

“people often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it’s served up.” George R. R. Martin, “A Clash of Kings” - 1999

“People always think something's all true.” J. D. Salinger, “The Catcher in the Rye” - 1951

“They seemed to forget that the increase of known truths stimulates the investigation, establishment, and growth of the arts; not their diminution or destruction.” Galileo Galilei, “Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany” - 1615

“False face must hide what the false heart doth know.” William Shakespeare, “Macbeth” - 1623

“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Scarlet Letter” - 1850

“They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.” Confucius, “Analects”

“I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.” Charles Dickens, “David Copperfield” - 1850

“The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head.” Terry Pratchett, “Hogfather” - 1996

“It is not down in any map; true places never are.” Herman Melville, “Moby-Dick” - 1851

“The opposite of every truth is just as true!” Hermann Hesse, “Siddhartha” - 1922

“There’s more beauty in the truth even if it is dreadful beauty.” John Steinbeck, “East of Eden” - 1952

“The truth . . . It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.” J. K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” - 1997

“the adults are the enemy, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth.” Orson Scott Card, “Ender's Game” - 1985

“He wanted the truth. Why was everybody so determined that he should not get it?” J. K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” - 2007

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” Oscar Wilde, “Intentions” - 1891

“He drew the dagger and laid it on the table between them; a length of dragonbone and Valyrian steel, as sharp as the difference between right and wrong, between true and false, between life and death.” George R. R. Martin, “A Game of Thrones” - 1996

“Nature has made all her truths independent of one another. Our art makes one dependent on the other.” Blaise Pascal, “Pensées” - 1670

“No story has power, nor will it last, unless we feel in ourselves that it is true and true of us.” John Steinbeck, “East of Eden” - 1952

Related topics

lies knowledge beauty lie God falsehood life honesty religion science speech fiction story writing loneliness love men death doubt hiding

Related authors

William Shakespeare (9)
George R. R. Martin (6)
Blaise Pascal (6)
Oscar Wilde (5)
George Orwell (5)
Mahatma Gandhi (5)
John Steinbeck (5)
Henry David Thoreau (4)
John Locke (4)
Galileo Galilei (4)
Herman Melville (3)
G. K. Chesterton (3)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (3)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (3)
René Descartes (3)
Albert Camus (3)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (2)
Mark Twain (2)
J. K. Rowling (2)
Heraclitus (2)

Related sources

Pensées (6)
A Game of Thrones (5)
The Story of my Experiments with Truth (5)
East of Eden (5)
1984 (4)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (4)
The Importance of Being Earnest (3)
Moby-Dick (3)
The Scarlet Letter (3)
Discourse on the Method (3)
The Beautiful and Damned (2)
Richard II (2)
Civil Disobedience (2)
What's Wrong with the World (2)
On Nature (2)
Mere Christianity (2)
Self-Reliance (2)
Brave New World (2)
Les Misérables (2)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (2)