Quotes about the truth

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Source: The Lake

Statement written weeks before his death in 1994, as quoted in "Unseen Bill Hicks Clip" in Esquire (3 February 2014) https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/film/news/a5661/unseen-bill-hicks-clip/

Source: The Darkness That Comes Before

Annajanska (1919)
1910s
Source: Annajanska the Bolshevik Empress

Source: Wintergirls

Source: A Gracious Plenty

Source: The Lives of Christopher Chant

Source: Clockwork Prince

Source: Voice of the Gods

Source: NOS4A2

Source: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Source: Something Borrowed

Source: Bring Up the Bodies

Source: The Awakening

Source: Dream Story

Source: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

"What I Believe" in The Forum 84 (September 1930), p. 139; some of these expressions were also used separately in other Mencken essays.
1930s
Context: I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind — that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.
I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.
I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty and the democratic form is as bad as any of the other forms.
I believe that the evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence of witches, and deserves no more respect.
I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech — alike for the humblest man and the mightiest, and in the utmost freedom of conduct that is consistent with living in organized society.
I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run.
I believe in the reality of progress.
I —But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.

Source: The Duke and I

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The House of Mirth

Source: Solipsist

Source: Slow Man

Source: The Titan's Curse

Source: The Legend of Holly Claus

Source: The Museum of Extraordinary Things

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

名不正，则言不顺
Paraphrased as a chinese proverb stating "The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name."
Source: The Analects of Confucius
Source: The Analects, Chapter XIII

Source: City of Lost Souls

Source: Dune

Source: Envy

Source: Freak the Mighty

Source: The Heart and the Bottle

Letter to Anthony Collins (29 October 1703) http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1726#lf0128-09_head_098

Source: Rising Strong

Source: Two Boys Kissing

Source: Boys Don't Cry

Source: Wildwood Dancing

Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Source: The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

Source: Shantaram

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Enchanted

Source: Self-Reliance

Source: Let the Great World Spin

Source: The Sword of Summer

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: The Solace of Open Spaces

Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 32 : Morning
Context: One of the ghosts — an old woman — beckoned, urging her to come close.
Then she spoke, and Mary heard her say:
"Tell them stories. They need the truth. You must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories."
That was all, and then she was gone. It was one of those moments when we suddenly recall a dream that we’ve unaccountably forgotten, and back in a flood comes all the emotion we felt in our sleep. It was the dream she’d tried to describe to Atal, the night picture; but as Mary tried to find it again, it dissolved and drifted apart, just as these presences did in the open air. The dream was gone.
All that was left was the sweetness of that feeling, and the injunction to tell them stories.

Source: Marx in Soho: A Play on History

Source: Atonement

Source: Phantom

Source: Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Source: A Wrinkle in Time

Source: Beatrice and Virgil

Source: Duma Key

Source: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Source: Deception Point

Source: All the Pretty Horses (1992)
Context: He thought he'd be an object of some curiosity but the people he saw only nodded gravely to him and passed on. He carried the bucket back into the store and went down the street to where there was a small cafe and he entered and sat at one of the three small wooden tables. The floor of the cafe was packed mud newly swept and he was the only customer. He stood the rifle against the wall and ordered huevos revueltos and a cup of chocolate and he sat and waited for it to come and then he ate very slowly. The food was rich to his taste and the chocolate was made with canela and he drank it and ordered another and folded a tortilla and ate and watched the horses standing in the square across the street and watched the girls. They'd hung the gazebo with crepe and it looked like a festooned brush-pile. The proprietor showed him great courtesy and brought him fresh tortillas hot from the comal and told him that there was to be a wedding and that it would be a pity if it rained. He inquired where he might be from and showed surprise he'd come so far. He stood at the window of the empty cafe and watched the activities in the square and he said that it was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they'd have no heart to start at all.

Source: Billy Budd

All Said and Done (1972), p. 16 ISBN 1569249814
General sources

Source: White Cat

Source: Living Beyond Your Feelings: Controlling Emotions So They Don't Control You

Source: The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Source: My Life

Illusions
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)
Source: The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Source: Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Source: 2000s, Letter to a Christian Nation (2006), p. 32

Source: Ender's Game

Source: In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars

Source: Finnikin of the Rock

Source: Reflections on Gender and Science

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Certain Girls

Source: The Dream of a Common Language

Source: The Red Pyramid

Source: Tigana