Quotes about the truth page 22
“Adversity is the first path to truth.”
George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement
“TRUTHFUL, adj. Dumb and illiterate.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
Pietro Aretino (1492–1556) Italian author, playwright, poet, satirist, and blackmailer
Source: The Works of Aretino: Biography: de Sanctis. The letters, 1926, p. 152
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman
Source: On Empire, Liberty, and Reform: Speeches and Letters
Richard Dawkins book The Magic of Reality
Duke University, 01/03/2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYcOoqxuroI&t=54m51s <br class="br">The Magic Of Reality (2012) <br class="br">Source: The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True <br class="br">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.”
Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Harry Truman (1884–1972) American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953)
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.
May Sarton (1912–1995) American poet, novelist, and memoirist
“Maybe it was wrong, or maybe impossible, but I wanted the truth to be one thing. One solid thing.”
Deb Caletti (1963) American writer
Source: The Secret Life of Prince Charming
“To this generation I would say:
Memorize some bit of verse of truth or beauty.”
Edgar Lee Masters book Spoon River Anthology
Source: Spoon River Anthology
“If a storyteller worried about the facts - my dear Lucian, how could he ever get at the truth?”
Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007) American children's writer
Source: The Arkadians
“Perhaps he d always known that the truth of a person lies in the heart.”
Jodi Picoult book Harvesting the Heart
Source: Harvesting the Heart
“Who has time to make up stories when the truth is so much more interesting?”
Cecily von Ziegesar book It Had to Be You
Source: It Had to Be You
“Every time I learn the truth about something, I’m disappointed”
Chuck Klosterman Eating the Dinosaur
Source: Eating the Dinosaur
Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer
Source: Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor
“Truthfulness so often goes with ruthlessness.”
Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle
Source: I Capture the Castle
“Nothing but truth is immortal.”
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer
Source: The Ghosts and Other Lectures
Agatha Christie book After the Funeral
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.”
Francois Rabelais book Gargantua and Pantagruel
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.”
Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881–1955) French philosopher and Jesuit priest
Source: Hymn of the Universe
“Behind one truth there is always yet another.”
Lloyd Alexander book The Iron Ring
Source: The Iron Ring
“Always tell the truth. It's the easiest thing to remember.”
David Mamet (1947) American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film director
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist
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.
Daniel Gottlieb (1939–2010) French rabbi
Source: Learning from the Heart: Lessons on Living, Loving, and Listening
“I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction.”
Georges Bataille (1897–1962) French intellectual and literary figure
Source: Violent Silence: Celebrating Georges Bataille
James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright
"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.”
John Donne (1572–1631) English poet
Source: The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose
“We are being very nomadic with the truth, yes?”
Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated
Source: Everything Is Illuminated
“I gave them all the truth and none of the honesty.”
Colum McCann book Let the Great World Spin
Source: Let the Great World Spin
“Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
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). <br class="br">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.”
Ellis Peters (1913–1995) British writer
“The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself.”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
“To tell the truth is very difficult, and young people are rarely capable of it.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer
Gretchen Rubin (1966) American writer
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”
E.M. Forster (1879–1970) English novelist
“Words are the only bullets in truth’s bandolier. And poets are the snipers.”
Dan Simmons book Hyperion
Source: Hyperion (1989), Chapter 3 (p. 192)
Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist
Source: Magical and Philosophical Commentaries on The Book of the Law
“The best lies are based on the
truth, at least in part”
Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel
Source: Clockwork Angel
“Sarcasm is when you tell someone the truth by lying on purpose.”
Chuck Klosterman book Downtown Owl
Source: Downtown Owl
“Truth suffers from too much analysis.
-Ancient Fremen Saying”
Frank Herbert book Dune Messiah
Source: Dune Messiah
“The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.”
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) English crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer
“God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi
Source: Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community
“Yeah, I hear the truth. But this is my truth.”
Julie Anne Peters (1952) American writer
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…”
F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned
Source: The Beautiful and Damned
“sometimes to find truth one must move mountains -Kohler”
Dan Brown book Angels & Demons
Source: Angels & Demons
“There are only two ways of telling the complete truth--anonymously and posthumously.”
Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author
“Jokes? There are no jokes. The truth is the funniest joke of all.”
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Speech in the House of Commons, May 17, 1916 "Royal Assent" http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1916/may/17/royal-assent#column_1578. <br class="br">Early career years (1898–1929)
“I don't care about truth. I want some happiness.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned
Source: The Beautiful and Damned
“I would have offered you a forest of truth, but you wish to speak of a single leaf”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) British author of heroic fantasy
Source: Fall of Kings
