“Which is better, truth that is a lie or the lie that is truth?”
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor
Source: The Judges
“And the parson made it his text that week, and he said likewise,
That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies,
That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright,
But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.”
" The Grandmother http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Alfred_Lord_Tennyson/14415", st. 8 (1864)
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That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest…" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson?
Alfred, Lord Tennyson213
British poet laureate 1809–1892Related quotes
“The truth is balance, but the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.”
Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist
Review of Selected Essays by Simone Weil, The New York Review of Books (1 February 1963)
Context: The need for truth is not constant; no more than is the need for repose. An idea which is a distortion may have a greater intellectual thrust than the truth; it may better serve the needs of the spirit, which vary. The truth is balance, but the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.
Vince Cable (1943) British Liberal Democrat politician
Boris Johnson insists he is 'all behind' May over Brexit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41289080 BBC News (16 September 2017) <br class="br">2017
“In the lie of truth lies the truth.”
Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman
“Truth and Lie,” p. 66
The Sun Watches the Sun (1999), Sequence: “A Stone and a Word”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 4: 1944-1947
“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.”
Albert Camus (1913–1960) French author and journalist
Pablo Picasso said something very similar. Perhaps it is the source? From Herschel B. Chipp’s Theories of Modern Art: "We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand."
Disputed
“It’s always better to tell a half-truth than a half-lie.”
Ben Aaronovitch book Moon Over Soho
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 13, “Autumn Leaves” (p. 277)
