Quotes about the truth
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“TRUTHFUL, adj. Dumb and illiterate.”
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Source: The Works of Aretino: Biography: de Sanctis. The letters, 1926, p. 152

Source: On Empire, Liberty, and Reform: Speeches and Letters

Duke University, 01/03/2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYcOoqxuroI&t=54m51s
The Magic Of Reality (2012)
Source: The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True
Context: Don’t ever be lazy enough, defeatist enough, cowardly enough to say “I don't understand it so it must be a miracle - it must be supernatural - God did it”. Say instead, that it’s a puzzle, it’s strange, it’s a challenge that we should rise to. Whether we rise to the challenge by questioning the truth of the observation, or by expanding our science in new and exciting directions - the proper and brave response to any such challenge is to tackle it head-on. And until we've found a proper answer to the mystery, it's perfectly ok simply to say “this is something we don't yet understand - but we're working on it”. It's the only honest thing to do. Miracles, magic and myths, they can be fun. Everybody likes a good story. Myths are fun, as long as you don't confuse them with the truth. The real truth has a magic of its own. The truth is more magical, in the best and most exciting sense of the word, than any myth or made-up mystery or miracle. Science has its own magic - the magic of reality.

“On the surface, an intelligible lie; underneath, the unintelligible truth.”
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

As quoted in Esquire, Vol. 76 (1971), also in Truman's Crises : A Political Biography of Harry S. Truman (1980) by Harold Foote Gosnell, p. 9; sometimes paraphrased: Being a politician is like being a piano player in a whorehouse.

“Maybe it was wrong, or maybe impossible, but I wanted the truth to be one thing. One solid thing.”
Source: The Secret Life of Prince Charming

“To this generation I would say:
Memorize some bit of verse of truth or beauty.”
Source: Spoon River Anthology
“If a storyteller worried about the facts - my dear Lucian, how could he ever get at the truth?”
Source: The Arkadians

“Perhaps he d always known that the truth of a person lies in the heart.”
Source: Harvesting the Heart

“Who has time to make up stories when the truth is so much more interesting?”
Source: It Had to Be You

Source: Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor

“Nothing but truth is immortal.”
Source: The Ghosts and Other Lectures

Source: After the Funeral (1953)
Context: There were to be no short cuts to the truth. Instead he would have to adopt a longer, but a reasonably sure method. There would have to be conversation. Much conversation. For in the long run, either through a lie, or through truth, people were bound to give themselves away...

“Come, pluck up a good heart; speak the truth and shame the devil.”
Author's prologue.
Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fifth Book (1564)

“I love the truth. It's the facts I'm not a fan of.”

Source: Hymn of the Universe
“Always tell the truth. It's the easiest thing to remember.”

The Miracle of Mindfulness (1999)
Source: The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
Context: To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is. A pessimistic attitude can never create the calm and serene smile which blossoms on the lips of Bodhisattvas and all those who obtain the way.
Source: Learning from the Heart: Lessons on Living, Loving, and Listening

“I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction.”
Source: Violent Silence: Celebrating Georges Bataille

"The Trouble with Man is Man", The New Yorker; reprinted in Lanterns & Lances (1961).
From Lanterns and Lances

“I did best when I had least truth for my subjects.”
Source: The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose

“… if truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom…”
Source: The Scarlet Letter
“Our lies reveal as much about us as our truths.”
Source: Slow Man (2004)
Source: Night Film

“Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe.”

Responding to a press conference question as to whether he was a "card-carrying" member of the Black Muslims, as quoted in The New York Times (27 February 1964) http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F4091EF7355D17738DDDAE0A94DA405B848AF1D3; also in Sports Illustrated (9 March 1964).
Context: I believe in Allah and in peace. I don't try to move into white neighborhoods. I don't want to marry a white woman. I was baptized when I was twelve, but I didn't know what I was doing. I'm not a Christian anymore. 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.

“Truth is a hard master, and costly to serve, but it simplifies all problems.”

“The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself.”

“To tell the truth is very difficult, and young people are rarely capable of it.”

Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

“If we act the truth the people who really love us are sure to come back to us in the long run”

“Because the truth sometimes hurts," I said.
Yeah," he said. "So do lies, though.”
Source: Just Listen

“Autobiography is usually honest but it is never truthful.”
Source: Friday
“Words are the only bullets in truth’s bandolier. And poets are the snipers.”
Source: Hyperion (1989), Chapter 3 (p. 192)

Source: Magical and Philosophical Commentaries on The Book of the Law

“The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.”

“I seek the truth,” Shallan said. “Wherever it may be, whoever may hold it. That’s who I am.”
Source: Words of Radiance

“God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth.”
Source: Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community
“Yeah, I hear the truth. But this is my truth.”
Source: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead

“I learned a little of beauty-- enough to know that it had nothing to do with truth…”
Source: The Beautiful and Damned

“sometimes to find truth one must move mountains -Kohler”
Source: Angels & Demons

“There are only two ways of telling the complete truth--anonymously and posthumously.”

“Jokes? There are no jokes. The truth is the funniest joke of all.”

Speech in the House of Commons, May 17, 1916 "Royal Assent" http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1916/may/17/royal-assent#column_1578.
Early career years (1898–1929)
“I would have offered you a forest of truth, but you wish to speak of a single leaf”
Source: Fall of Kings