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Truth quotes

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“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

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

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

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

“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

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

“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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

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

“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

“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

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

“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

“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

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

“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

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

“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

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

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

“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

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

“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

“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

“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

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

“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

“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

“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

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

“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

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

“Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.” Blaise Pascal, Pensées

“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

“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

“Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.” Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years

“And it is evident that it is not less repugnant that falsity or imperfection, in so far as it is imperfection, should proceed from God, than that truth or perfection should proceed from nothing.” René Descartes, Discourse on the Method

“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, —that is genius.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

“Truth hath a quiet breast.” William Shakespeare, Richard II

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

“It's queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there has never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first...” Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

“Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken;” Jane Austen, Emma

“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.” Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

“I had decided against religion a couple of years back. If it were true, it made fools out of people, or it drew fools. And if it weren't true, the fools were all the more foolish.” Charles Bukowski, Ham on Rye

“An unbelieved truth can hurt a man much more than a lie. It takes great courage to back truth unacceptable to our times. There’s a punishment for it, and it’s usually crucifixion.” John Steinbeck, East of Eden

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Related topics

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

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George Orwell (5)
Mahatma Gandhi (5)
William Shakespeare (9)
George R. R. Martin (6)
Oscar Wilde (5)
Henry David Thoreau (5)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (3)
G. K. Chesterton (3)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (3)
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C. S. Lewis (2)
Mark Twain (2)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (2)
Heraclitus (2)
Blaise Pascal (6)
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Galileo Galilei (4)
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Related sources

The Story of my Experiments with Truth (5)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (4)
A Game of Thrones (5)
Moby-Dick (3)
Brave New World (2)
What's Wrong with the World (2)
On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History (2)
Pensées (6)
East of Eden (5)
1984 (4)
The Importance of Being Earnest (3)
Discourse on the Method (3)
The Scarlet Letter (3)
The Brothers Karamazov (2)
Analects (2)
Les Misérables (2)
Mere Christianity (2)
Walden (2)
Following the Equator (2)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (2)