Quotes on truth

It is by doubting that we come to investigate, and by investigating that we recognize the truth.

Author: Peter Abelard

Myths and creeds are heroic struggles to comprehend the truth in the world.

Author: Ansel Adams

Too much truth is uncouth.

Author: Franklin Adams

I tell you the solemn truth, that the doctrine of the Trinity is not so difficult to accept for a working proposition as any one of the axioms of physics.

Author: Henry Adams

A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.

Author: Joseph Addison

A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt dangerous.

Author: Alfred Adler

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

Author: Alfred Adler

Every therapeutic cure, and still more, any awkward attempt to show the patient the truth, tears him from the cradle of his freedom from responsibility and must therefore reckon with the most vehement resistance.

Author: Alfred Adler

We acknowledge but one motive - to follow the truth as we know it, whithersoever it may lead us; but in our heart of hearts we are well assured that the truth which has made us free, will in the end make us glad also.

Author: Mortimer Adler

Truth is inseperable from the illusory belief that from the figures of the unreal one day, in spite of all, real deliverance will come.

Author: Theodor Adorno

The words of truth are simple.

Author: Aeschylus

A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth.

Author: Aesop

Every truth has two sides; it is as well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either.

Author: Aesop

Don't let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth - don't let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency.

Author: Aesop

Every scientific truth goes through three states: first, people say it conflicts with the Bible; next, they say it has been discovered before; lastly, they say they always believed it.

Author: Louis Agassiz

A play is fiction - and fiction is fact distilled into truth.

Author: Edward Albee

Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it. A good writer turns fact into truth; a bad writer will, more often than not, accomplish the opposite.

Author: Edward Albee

Let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.

Author: Louisa Alcott

Do the things you know, and you shall learn the truth you need to know.

Author: Louisa Alcott

I can't help believing that these things that come from the subconscious mind have a sort of truth to them. It may not be a scientific truth, but it's psychological truth.

Author: Brian Aldiss

The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous.

Author: Shana Alexander

My way of joking is to tell the truth. That's the funniest joke in the world.

Author: Muhammad Ali

I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want.

Author: Muhammad Ali

It's better to be hurt by the truth than to gain satisfaction from the lies.

Author: David Allan

You have had indeed a fair trial. It is a shocking thing when a judge of your high office is shown to have betrayed the truth and his honor, and I sentence you to the penitentiary.

Author: Florence Allen

The man who cannot endure to have his errors and shortcomings brought to the surface and made known, but tries to hide them, is unfit to walk the highway of truth.

Author: James Allen

A man has to learn that he cannot command things, but that he can command himself; that he cannot coerce the wills of others, but that he can mold and master his own will: and things serve him who serves Truth; people seek guidance of him who is master of himself.

Author: James Allen

In arriving at a decision in a question of doubt, the apostles in the Acts were guided solely by their sense of the Spirit behind the action, not by any speculations as to consequences which might ensue. And so they found the truth.

Author: Roland Allen

Fiction is a piece of truth that turns lies to meaning.

Author: Dorothy Allison

Search for the truth. I tell you things and I always ask you to verify what I say. I told you yesterday that there was an attack and a retreat at Saddam's airport.

Author: Mohammed al-Sahaf

For two years living in a neutral country I have been able to see through the haze of propaganda to reach something which my conscience tells me is the truth.

Author: John Amery

Pure truth cannot be assimilated by the crowd; it must be communicated by contagion.

Author: Henri Amiel

Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.

Author: Henri Amiel

Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.

Author: Henri Amiel

An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains.

Author: Henri Amiel

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.

Author: Sherwood Anderson

There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.

Author: Maya Angelou

For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.

Author: Maya Angelou

There are only two people who can tell you the truth about yourself - an enemy who has lost his temper and a friend who loves you dearly.

Author: Antisthenes

There never was a woman who did not prefer an oblique compliment to a straight truth - if the latter were unflattering.

Author: Minna Antrim

That one woman is capable of loving another is an historical truth; but never yet lived one who could not listen to her own praises at the expense of her adored friend.

Author: Minna Antrim

Children say that people are hung sometimes for speaking the truth.

Author: Joan Arc

We go on a lot in this country about offences being caused by drugs. The truth is just as many offences are caused by drink. And that should be taken into account.

Author: Jeffrey Archer

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.

Author: Hannah Arendt

The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.

Author: Hannah Arendt

If you want to annoy your neighbors, tell the truth about them.

Author: Pietro Aretino

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

Author: Aristotle

Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.

Author: Aristotle

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

Author: Aristotle

I think we have erred on the side of being too conservative so far, to tell you the truth.

Author: Roone Arledge

I don't think Bosnia is ready for reconciliation, but I do think it is ready for truth.

Author: Paddy Ashdown

Well, I mean, the real attack on truth is tabloid journalism in the United States.

Author: Julian Assange

Truth is strong, and sometime or other will prevail.

Author: Mary Astell

Hitherto I have courted Truth with a kind of Romantick Passion, in spite of all Difficulties and Discouragements: for knowledge is thought so unnecessary an Accomplishment for a Woman, that few will give themselves the Trouble to assist us in the Attainment of it.

Author: Mary Astell

It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime.

Author: Lee Atwater

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

Author: Marcus Aurelius

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.

Author: Jane Austen

All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.

Author: Richard Avedon

The truth is that as we move forward, if one side says we can't raise any taxes on anybody or any interest, and the other side says we can't cut anything, we're obviously not going to make progress on this. And our interest is in making progress on this.

Author: David Axelrod

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

Author: Richard Bach

I've always had a problem with people who couldn't tell the truth or admit a mistake and say they're wrong.

Author: Burt Bacharach

The subconscious is ceaselessly murmuring, and it is by listening to these murmurs that one hears the truth.

Author: Gaston Bachelard

There is no original truth, only original error.

Author: Gaston Bachelard

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

Author: Francis Bacon

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

Author: Francis Bacon

Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.

Author: Francis Bacon

Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.

Author: Francis Bacon

Argument is conclusive, but it does not remove doubt, so that the mind may rest in the sure knowledge of the truth, unless it finds it by the method of experiment.

Author: Roger Bacon

Evil is the interruption of a truth by the pressure of particular or individual interests.

Author: Alain Badiou

A Truth is the subjective development of that which is at once both new and universal. New: that which is unforeseen by the order of creation. Universal: that which can interest, rightly, every human individual, according to his pure humanity.

Author: Alain Badiou

You never find yourself until you face the truth.

Author: Pearl Bailey

Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth.

Author: Philip Bailey

I have been given the authority over you, and I am not the best of you. If I do well, help me; and if I do wrong, set me right. Sincere regard for truth.

Author: Abu Bakr

The greatest truth is honesty, and the greatest falsehood is dishonesty.

Author: Abu Bakr

Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.

Author: James Baldwin

I am not struck so much by the diversity of testimony as by the many-sidedness of truth.

Author: Stanley Baldwin

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

Author: Stanley Baldwin

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

Author: Arthur Balfour

It may not always be easy, convenient, or politically correct to stand for truth and right, but it is the right thing to do. Always.

Author: M. Ballard

Error is always more busy than truth.

Author: Hosea Ballou

Doubt is the incentive to truth and inquiry leads the way.

Author: Hosea Ballou

Falsehood is cowardice, the truth courage.

Author: Hosea Ballou

Truth is not exciting enough to those who depend on the characters and lives of their neighbors for all their amusement.

Author: George Bancroft

If reason is a universal faculty, the decision of the common mind is the nearest criterion of truth.

Author: George Bancroft

My truth - what I believe - is that there are no answers here and, if you are looking for answers, you'd better choose the question carefully.

Author: Javier Bardem

Many people have the idea that game shows are easy to come up with. And nothing could be further from the truth.

Author: Bob Barker

I was telling the truth. I feel like we got that point across.

Author: Jim Barksdale

The mainstream media may have trouble resisting the temptation to declare that Karl Rove has been demoted, but the truth is quite the contrary. By giving up his role as deputy White House chief of staff, Rove has been freed to do what he does best: shape big issues and develop strategies to win elections.

Author: Fred Barnes

I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction.

Author: Georges Bataille

I wish I had Wonder Woman's magic lasso like her to make people tell the truth.

Author: Kylie Bax

The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is not assurance of its truth.

Author: Pierre Bayle

Defending the truth is not something one does out of a sense of duty or to allay guilt complexes, but is a reward in itself.

Author: Simone Beauvoir

No matter how difficult and painful it may be, nothing sounds as good to the soul as the truth.

Author: Martha Beck

An autobiography is not about pictures; it's about the stories; it's about honesty and as much truth as you can tell without coming too close to other people's privacy.

Author: Boris Becker

See, I think if it just became who's sleeping with whom, then there's no reason to prefer one party over the other, 'cause the truth is we're all sinners.

Author: Paul Begala

For every good reason there is to lie, there is a better reason to tell the truth.

Author: Bo Bennett

There is a tragic clash between Truth and the world. Pure undistorted truth burns up the world.

Author: Nikolai Berdyaev

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

Author: Bernard Berenson

Truth is, we offered it to Tom Hanks, which pretty much every movie in America does, but Tom passed. Billy Bob said that Hanks recently called and said he's voting for all of us for Oscars, he loved the film.

Author: Peter Berg

The eye by long use comes to see even in the darkest cavern: and there is no subject so obscure but we may discern some glimpse of truth by long poring on it.

Author: George Berkeley

Truth is the cry of all, but the game of few.

Author: George Berkeley

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

Author: Irving Berlin

What does the truth matter? Haven't we mothers all given our sons a taste for lies, lies which from the cradle upwards lull them, reassure them, send them to sleep: lies as soft and warm as a breast!

Author: Georges Bernanos

Truth is meant to save you first, and the comfort comes afterward.

Author: Georges Bernanos

The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.

Author: William Bernbach

The lowest form of popular culture - lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people's lives - has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.

Author: Carl Bernstein

This is my truth, tell me yours.

Author: Aneurin Bevan

Though the names karma yoga and sannyasa are different, the truth at the heart of both is the same.

Author: Vinoba Bhave

One word from Chairman Mao is worth ten thousand from others. His every statement is truth. We must carry out those we that understand as well as those we don't.

Author: Lin Biao

Doubt, indulged and cherished, is in danger of becoming denial; but if honest, and bent on thorough investigation, it may soon lead to full establishment of the truth.

Author: Ambrose Bierce

Friendless. Having no favors to bestow. Destitute of fortune. Addicted to utterance of truth and common sense.

Author: Ambrose Bierce

Who never doubted, never half believed. Where doubt is, there truth is - it is her shadow.

Author: Ambrose Bierce

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

Author: Josh Billings

There are some people so addicted to exaggeration that they can't tell the truth without lying.

Author: Josh Billings

People think actors have such glamorous lives, but the truth is actors go where nobody wants to go.

Author: Juliette Binoche

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

Author: Otto Bismarck

But the truth is that critics are by definition critical. That's their job.

Author: Frank Black

In truth, the only restrictions on our capacity to astonish ourselves and each other are imposed by our own minds.

Author: David Blaine

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

Author: William Blake

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

Author: William Blake

What ever truth drops on it eventually grinds to a powder.

Author: Art Blakey

When the truth changes from your speaking, you know you have told the truth.

Author: Ray Blanton

And the sad truth is that nobody wants me to write comedy. The Exorcist not only ended that career, it expunged all memory of its existence.

Author: William Blatty

There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.

Author: Allan Bloom

The real community of man is the community of those who seek the truth, of the potential knowers.

Author: Allan Bloom

On the contrary, it might even be a projection of what the truth is of the Bush Administration's complacency and ineptitude on the terrorism in its first 9 months in office.

Author: Sidney Blumenthal

The Dharma is the truth that all natures are pure.

Author: Bodhidharma

The great seal of truth is simplicity.

Author: Herman Boerhaave

The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.

Author: 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.

Author: Niels Bohr

The truth has got to appear plausible on the stage.

Author: Edward Bond

Argument is meant to reveal the truth, not to create it.

Author: Edward Bono

The belief that there is only one truth, and that oneself is in possession of it, is the root of all evil in the world.

Author: Max Born

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.

Author: Ludwig Borne

Getting rid of a delusion makes us wiser than getting hold of a truth.

Author: Ludwig Borne

Truth, though it has many disadvantages, is at least changeless. You can always find it where you left it.

Author: Phyllis Bottome

Fame - a few words upon a tombstone, and the truth of those not to be depended on.

Author: Christian Bovee

I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little more, as I grown older.

Author: Catherine Bowen

Nobody speaks the truth when there is something they must have.

Author: Elizabeth Bowen

The act is truth. Nothing that was ever recorded is truth. Nothing that was ever said is truth. Only the act.

Author: Jack Bowman

The American people need to know the truth. The American people need to see the truth. In a democracy, letting the people know the truth is the essence of what it means to be free.

Author: Barbara Boxer

The English are polite by telling lies. The Americans are polite by telling the truth.

Author: Malcolm Bradbury

Without free speech no search for truth is possible... no discovery of truth is useful.

Author: Charles Bradlaugh

You never monkey with the truth.

Author: Ben Bradlee

I think he had a strange, passionate devotion to the truth and a horror at what he saw going on.

Author: Ben Bradlee

There are those who so dislike the nude that they find something indecent in the naked truth.

Author: F. Bradley

Eclecticism - every truth is so true that any truth must be false.

Author: F. Bradley

Truth exists; only lies are invented.

Author: Georges Braque

Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true.

Author: Robert Brault

It's all a sham: I have seen, and I know firsthand, indeed from my own pen, how the organized Right has sabotaged not only journalism but also democracy and truth.

Author: David Brock