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Truth quotes

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“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

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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

“In the end, you can’t censor the truth, especially when it comes packaged in hot music.” Jay-Z, “Decoded” - 2010

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

“Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.” George R. R. Martin, “A Game of Thrones” - 1996

“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

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

“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

“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

“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

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

“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

“I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” Malcolm X, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” - 1965

“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

“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

“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

“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

“The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature to those of us who like to study people is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without hurting anyone and without humiliating himself too much.” Eleanor Roosevelt, “The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt” - 1961

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

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

“Rather do I fear to lose truth by this pretension to possess it already wholly.” William James, “The Varieties of Religious Experience” - 1902

“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

“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

“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

“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

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

“Tyrion says that 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

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

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

“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

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

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

“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

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

“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

“I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.” Tennessee Williams, “The Glass Menagerie” - 1944

“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

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

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

“Wisdom is to speak the truth and act in keeping with its nature.” Heraclitus, “On Nature” - c. 535 – c. 475 BCE

Related topics

lies knowledge beauty lie God life honesty science falsehood speech fiction story writing religion loneliness love men happiness language justice

Related authors

William Shakespeare (8)
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)
Albert Camus (3)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (2)
J. K. Rowling (2)
Heraclitus (2)
C. S. Lewis (2)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (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)
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)
Analects (2)