Quotes about the truth
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“The scientist only imposes two things, namely truth and sincerity, imposes them upon himself and upon other scientists.”

Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) Austrian physicist

Source: What Is Life? with Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches

Sincerity

“The truth is, a great mind must be androgynous.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

1 September 1832
Table Talk (1821–1834)

“If they substituted the word 'Lust' for 'Love' in the popular songs it would come nearer the truth.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Love

“Hell is truth known too late.”

J.C. Ryle (1816–1900) Anglican bishop

Source: The Upper Room (1888), Ch. XIX: "Thoughts for Young Men"

Hell

“We have our Arts so we won't die of Truth”

Ray Bradbury book Zen in the Art of Writing

Source: Zen in the Art of Writing

Art

“Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

Science

“The truth is always something that is told, not something that is known. If there were no speaking or writing, there would be no truth about anything. There would only be what is.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Source: The Benefactor (1963), Ch. 1, p. 1, Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN 0-312-42012-9

“I've heard that the soul often recognizes truth when it hears it, even if the mind does not.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Storm Born

Soul

“Safety is a fence, and fences are for sheep. I would rather die at twenty-two, knowing the truth, then live in a cage of lies for a hundred years.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Shadowfever

“Anything more than the truth would be too much.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

“What does it mean to live in truth? Putting it negatively is easy enough: it means not lying, not hiding, and not dissimulating.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Lying

“A truth comes out when it must;
A dream comes true when it will.
Though the world turn to ash and dust
A secret’s a secret still.”

Sharon Shinn (1957) American science fiction writer

Source: The Safe-Keeper's Secret

Secret, World, Dreams

“I am saddened by how people treat one another and how we are so shut off from one another and how we judge one another, when the truth is, we are all one connected thing. We are all from the same exact molecules.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

People

“When you start putting pen to paper, you see a side of your personal truth that doesn't otherwise reveal itself in conversation or thought.”

Anthony Kiedis book Scar Tissue

Source: Scar Tissue

Personality

“The sorry truth is you can walk your feet to blisters, walk till kingdom-com, and you never will outpace your grief.”

Sue Monk Kidd (1948) Novelist

Source: The Invention of Wings

“A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

Source: The Exploration of Space

Faith

“But there was only one truth about forever that really mattered, and that was this: it was happening.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

“Wherever they might be they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end.”

Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude

Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Love, Lie, Spring, Memory

“The only time I see the truth is when I cross my eyes.”

Louise Erdrich (1954) writer from the United States

Source: The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse

Time

“Why were you so old when we met? I answered with the truth: Age isn't how old you are but how old you feel.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Age, Feeling

“The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

Speech on the twenty-third anniversary of Emancipation in the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C. (April 1885).
1880s
Variant: The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.

Life

“The way we live ought to manifest the truth of what we believe. A messy life speaks of a messy and incoherent faith.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Source: Let Me be a Woman

Life, Faith, Way

“Strike an average between what a woman thinks of her husband a month before she marries him and what she thinks of him a year afterward, and you will have the truth about him.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Anniversary, Thinking

“To see truth as truth, we don't need a lot of study. It's not complicated. What we need is pure observation. An open mind and fresh eyes will serve us well.”

Ilchi Lee (1950) South Korean businessman

Source: Change: Realizing Your Greatest Potential

Study

“We can get so wrapped up in our own misconceptions that we miss the simple beauty of the truth.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: Stay

Beauty

“All your life you live so close to truth, it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye, and when something nudges it into outline it is like being ambushed by a grotesque.”

Tom Stoppard book Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Source: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Life

“The answers we seek aren't always the answers we want, are they? But knowing the truth is what helps us sleep at night.”

Karen White (1964) American writer

Source: The Beach Trees

Sleep, Help, Night

“Truth springs from argument amongst friends.”

David Hume (1711–1776) Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian

Misattributed

Friendship, Spring

“But if you can plant yourself in stillness long enough, you will, in time, experience the truth that everything (both uncomfortable and lovely) does eventually pass.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Love, Time

“The prince's robes and beggar's rags,
Are toadstools on the miser's bags.
A truth that's told with bad intent,
Beats all the lies you can invent”

William Blake Auguries of Innocence

Source: Auguries of Innocence

“Because love is the meeting point of truth and magic. Truth, as in photography; magic, as in ballooning.”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

Source: Levels of Life

Love

“The moment Eve bit into the apple, her eyes opened and she became free. She exposed the truth of what every woman knows: to find our sovereign voice often requires a betrayal.”

Terry Tempest Williams (1955) American writer

Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

Betrayal

“May you grow up to be righteous, may you grow up to be true. May you always know the truth and see the lights surrounding you. May you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong. May you stay forever young.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Courage, Light, Strong

“There's more beauty in truth, even if it is dreadful beauty.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Beauty

“I can't believe you married a justice nymph and have yet to learn anything from her. There are always three sides to every memory, Z. Yours, theirs, and the truth, which lies somewhere in between the two. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Seize the Night

Justice, Learning, Memory

“What a strange world it is where you can have as much sex as you like but love is taboo. I'm talking about the real thing, the grand passion, which may not allow affection or convenience or happiness. The truth is that love smashes into your life like an ice floe, and even if your heart is built like the Titanic you go down. That's the size of it, the immensity of it. It's not proper, it's not clean, it's not containable.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Source: The Powerbook (2000)

Love, Life, World, Sex

“what is terrible when you seek the truth is that you find it..”

Victor Serge (1890–1947) Russian revolutionary and writer

“Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Source: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

“Be grateful that you only see the outward man. Be grateful that you never see the passions, the hatreds, the jealousies, the malice, the sicknesses… Be grateful you rarely see the frightening truth in people.”

Alfred Bester book The Demolished Man

Source: The Demolished Man

People, Jealousy, Passion

“Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

Love, Change

“Eye contact made people think you were being truthful even if you weren't.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: All These Things I've Done

People, Thinking

“When no one you know tells the truth, you learn to see under the surface.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Learning

“I seek truth and beauty in the transparency of an autumn leaf, in the perfect form of a seashell on the beach, in the curve of a woman's back, in the texture of an ancient tree trunk, but also in the elusive forms of reality.”

Isabel Allende book Portrait in Sepia

Source: Portrait in Sepia

Beauty, Autumn, Reality, Tree

“some changes happen deep down inside of you. And the truth is, only you know about them. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.”

Judy Blume Tiger Eyes

Source: Tiger Eyes

Way, Change

“In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story.”

Walter Cronkite (1916–2009) American broadcast journalist

Source: Free the Airwaves! (2002)

“There's a hell of a distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Interview, The Paris Review (Summer 1956)

Hell

“The truth is, we value your company, for want of any other. We have been left so much to our own devices—after a while one welcomes the uncertainty of being left to other people's.”

Tom Stoppard book Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Source: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

People

“I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.”

Umberto Eco book Foucault's Pendulum

Source: Foucault's Pendulum

World, Madness

“I thought about telling him the truth: 'Oh, nothing. Just having my soul exorcised so I can roam around
purgatory, looking for the ghost of the dead cowboy who used to live in my bedroom.”

Meg Cabot book Darkest Hour

Source: Darkest Hour

Soul, Dead

“The secret of theory is that truth does not exist.”

Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French sociologist and philosopher

Source: Fragments: Cool Memories III, 1990-1995

Secret

“The profoundest of all sensualities
is the sense of truth
and the next deepest sensual experience
is the sense of justice.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

Justice, Sense

“You can destroy those who speak the truth, but you cannot destroy the truth itself”

Terry Goodkind book The Omen Machine

Source: The Omen Machine

“No one forgets the truth; they just get better at lying.”

Richard Yates book Revolutionary Road

Source: Revolutionary Road

Lying, Forgetting, Sad

“Write,' she said, 'as if you'll never be read. That way you'll be sure to tell the truth.”

Lori Lansens book The Girls

Source: The Girls

Way, Reading

“A good story is always more dazzling than a broken piece of truth.”

Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

“The moment someone keeps an eye on what we do, we involuntarily make allowances for that eye, and nothing we do is truthful. Having a public, keeping a public in mind, means living in lies…”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Because here is the truth: If you want to have a chance at meeting somebody with whom you are genuinely compatible, never put your best foot forward.”

Augusten Burroughs (1965) American writer

Source: This Is How: Surviving What You Think You Can't

Chance

“Truth is truth, not the explanations of Truth. Truth is a living, moving process. Truth is constantly undulating and vibrating. You can become one with the Truth, but you cannot adequately explain it.”

Ilchi Lee (1950) South Korean businessman

Source: Change: Realizing Your Greatest Potential

“It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

“Maybe the hardest thing in writing is simply to tell the truth about things as we see them.”

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer

“Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

World, Singing, Painting

“There is so much more to this world then outward appearances. Our society basks in the illusion of normalcy every day, and hides from the truth every night.”

Amber Benson (1977) actress from the United States

Source: Accursed

World, Appearance, Night

“If what he said was the truth, it broke her heart. If what he said was a lie, it was broken anyway.”

Christine Feehan American writer

Source: Oceans of Fire

Lie, Heart

“Truth is neither ojectivity nor the balanced view; truth is a selfless subjectivity.”

Knut Hamsun book Hunger

Source: Hunger

“Herein lies the heart and soul of the nations.
Their right to be free men,
Their desire to live in peace,
Their courage to seek out truth,
Herein lies the Sword of Shannara.”

Terry Brooks book The Sword of Shannara

Source: The Sword of Shannara

Men, Peace, Soul, Courage

“Truth is found neither in the thesis nor the antithesis, but in an emergent synthesis which reconciles the two.”

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) German philosopher

“You might as well answer the door, my child,
the truth is furiously knocking.”

Lucille Clifton (1936–2010) American poet

Source: Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980

“There is nothing so powerful as truth — and often nothing so strange.”

Daniel Webster (1782–1852) Leading American senator and statesman. January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852. Served as the Secretary of Sta…

Argument on the murder of Captain White (1830)

“A truth should exist,
it should not be used
like this. If I love you

is that a fact or a weapon?”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Love

“The real wonders of life lie in the depths. Exploring the depths for truths is the real wonder which the child and the artist know: magic and power lie in truth.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 4: 1944-1947

Life, Lie

“The truth remains. I was, and am, disgusted with myself.”

Julie Anne Peters (1952) American writer

Source: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead

“And to tell the truth I don't want to let go of the wrists of idleness, I don't want to sell my life for money, I don't even want to come in out of the rain.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Source: Blue Iris: Poems and Essays

Life, Money

“I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of imagination — what the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth — whether it existed before or not.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Letter to Benjamin Bailey (November 22, 1817)
Letters (1817–1820)

Beauty, Imagination, Heart

“Perhaps it is how we are made; perhaps words of truth reach us best through the heart, and stories and songs are the language of the heart”

Stephen R. Lawhead (1950) American writer

Source: Merlin

Heart

“You don't always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it too.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

“… because people who talk about their dreams are actually trying to tell you things about themselves they'd never admit in normal conversation. It's a way for people to be honest without telling the truth.”

Chuck Klosterman book Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

Source: Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

People, Dreams, Way

“Hiding from the truth was worse than being lied to.”

Scott Westerfeld book Afterworlds

Source: Afterworlds

“The truth was, there was no way everything could be the Best. Sometimes, when it came to events and people, it had to be okay to just.”

Sarah Dessen book The Moon and More

Source: The Moon and More

People, Way

“Don’t talk like that, Dill,” said Aunt Alexandra. “It’s not becoming to a child. It’s – cynical.”

“I ain’t cynical, Miss Alexandra. Tellin’ the truth’s not cynical, is it?”

“The way you tell it, it is.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Way

“When illusions are shattered by truth, talent is set free.”

Gillian Rubinstein Tales of the Otori

Source: Across the Nightingale Floor

“It was war, and in war the truth was almost always the first casualty.”

Vince Flynn book Executive Power

Source: Executive Power

War

“Every decent con man knows that the simplest truth is more powerful than even the most elaborate lie.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Uncommon Criminals

Lie

“I shouldn't have eavesdropped, but sometimes, that's the only way to find out the truth.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Way

“Experience has taught us that we have only one enduring weapon in our struggle against mental illness: the emotional discovery and emotional acceptance of the truth in the individual and unique history of our childhood.”

Alice Miller (1923–2010) Swiss psychologist

Source: The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self

History, Childhood

“You've learned that every good lie is threaded with truth and every accepted truth leaks lies.”

Dennis Lehane (1965) Novelist

Lie, Learning

“Worship is not an experience. Worship is an act, and this takes discipline. We are to worship ''in spirit and in truth.'' Never mind about the feelings. We are to worship in spite of them.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Source: Let Me be a Woman

Feeling

“It didn´t occur to me until later that there´s another truth, very simple: greed in a good cause is still greed.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: Wolves of the Calla

“If the truth doesn't save us, what does that say about us?”

Lois McMaster Bujold book Diplomatic Immunity

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Diplomatic Immunity (2002)

“Most of the change we think we see in life
Is due to truths being in and out of favor.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

"The Black Cottage" (1914)
1910s

Life, Thinking, Change

“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

Lie

“Truth brought to public light recruits the best of us to work for change. On the other hand, even the best-intentioned "noble lie" ultimately discredits the finest of causes.”

Christina Hoff Sommers (1950) American author and philosopher

Source: Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women

Lie, Light, Change

“In fact, the truth cannot be communicated until it is perceived.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

Source: The Necessity of Atheism and Other Essays

Communication

“It was a lie but he believed in telling lies to people. Truth telling and medicine just didn't go together except in dire emergencies, if then.”

Mario Puzo The Godfather

Source: The Godfather

People, Lie

“The truth is revealed when you are ready to receive it when you need it in order to move forward to take the next step in your journey. to move on toward your destiny.”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

Source: Everlasting

“If any man can convince me and bring home to me that I do not think or act aright, gladly will I change; for I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed. But he is harmed who abideth on still in his deception and ignorance.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Variant translation: If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one ever was truly harmed. Harmed is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance.
VI, 21
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VI

Home, Search, Thinking, Change

“Man, life was complicated. But the truth was simple. He was her home. He was where she belonged.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Reborn

Life, Home