“The greater the truth the greater the libel.”
Attributed to Lord Ellenborough (c. 1789). Burns credits it to Lord Mansfield.
Attributed
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Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough21
Lord Chief Justice of England 1750–1818Related quotes
Walter Dill Scott (1869–1955) President of Northwestern university and psychologist
Source: The Theory of Advertising, 1903, p. 59
“…In the end we are all just searching for truth, that which is greater than ourselves.”
Dan Brown book Angels & Demons
Source: Angels & Demons
Friedrich Nietzsche book The Birth of Tragedy
Darum hat Lessing, der ehrlichste theoretische Mensch, es auszusprechen gewagt, dass ihm mehr am Suchen der Wahrheit als an ihr selbst gelegen sei...
Source: The Birth of Tragedy (1872), p. 73
“One voice, speaking truth is a greater force than fleets and armies, given time; plenty of time.”
Ursula K. Le Guin Hainish Cycle
Source: Hainish Cycle, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), Chapter 3 “The Mad King” (p. 27)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Tales of a Wayside Inn
The Nun of Nidaros, st. 9.
Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863-1874)
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer
Tolstoy's Diaries (1985) edited and translated by R. F. Christian. London: Athlone Press, Vol 2, p. 512
Context: People usually think that progress consists in the increase of knowledge, in the improvement of life, but that isn't so. Progress consists only in the greater clarification of answers to the basic questions of life. The truth is always accessible to a man. It can't be otherwise, because a man's soul is a divine spark, the truth itself. It's only a matter of removing from this divine spark (the truth) everything that obscures it. Progress consists, not in the increase of truth, but in freeing it from its wrappings. The truth is obtained like gold, not by letting it grow bigger, but by washing off from it everything that isn't gold.