Quotes about the truth
page 44

Mata Amritanandamayi photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Ani DiFranco photo
Derren Brown photo
Karl Barth photo
Halldór Laxness photo
Isaac Leib Peretz photo

“Who tells the truth needs no fancy phrases.”

Isaac Leib Peretz (1852–1915) Yiddish language author and playwright

Yohanan Melameds Maaselach, 1904. Alle Verk, vi. 181.

“There is no truth but untruth. There is no reason but unreason.”

Edmund Cooper (1926–1982) British writer

The Overman Culture (1971)

Albert Camus photo
Thomas Henry Huxley photo

“All truth, in the long run, is only common sense clarified.”

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) English biologist and comparative anatomist

"On the Study of Biology" (1876) http://books.google.com/books?id=4cl5c4T9LWkC&pg=PA163&lpg=PA163&dq=All+truth,+in+the+long+run,+is+only+common+sense+clarified.+huxley+On+the+Study+of+Biology&source=bl&ots=87sGwjauQT&sig=pEmWoYQoN8HUVIVU6WSrnAAM8Dc&hl=en&ei=hFcnStrlM5H0tQPG-NBH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2
1870s

George Canning photo

“I can prove anything by statistics except the truth.”

George Canning (1770–1827) British statesman and politician

As quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908) edited by Tryon Edwards, p. 587.

John Shelby Spong photo

“All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth.”

John Shelby Spong (1931) American bishop

Interview http://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/christianity/2005/05/i-am-a-mystic.aspx?p=2 with Deborah Caldwell for Beliefnet.com (May 2005)

Robert T. Kiyosaki photo

“The sad truth is, great talent is not enough.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki (1947) American finance author , investor

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

Desmond Morris photo
Thomas Jefferson photo

“I am quite at a loss about the nailboys remaining with mr Stewart. they have long been a dead expence instead of profit to me. in truth they require a vigour of discipline to make them do reasonable work, to which he cannot bring himself. on the whole I think it will be best for them also to be removed to mr Lilly’s”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

control
In a letter to James Dinsmore as quoted in The Dark Side of Thomas Jefferson http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-thomas-jefferson-35976004/, by Henry Wiencek, Smithsonian Magazine, (October 2012)
Attributed

Dwight L. Moody photo

“Merely reading the Bible is no use at all without we study it thoroughly, and hunt it through, as it were, for some great truth.”

Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899) American evangelist and publisher

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 40. (from "How to Study the Bible").

James David Forbes photo

“Most merciful and gracious God, who hast preserved me unto this hour, I most humbly acknowledge Thee as the guide and companion of my youth. Thou hast protected me through the dangers of infancy and childhood, and in my youth Thou didst bless me with the full enjoyment, the happy intimacy, of the best of fathers. Be as gracious and merciful then as Thou hast hitherto been, now that I am about to enter a new stage of existence. Teach me, I beseech Thee, to strengthen in my soul the cultivation of Thy truth, the recollection of the uncertainty of life, the greatness of the objects for which I was created. Revive those delightful religious impressions which in early days I felt more strongly than now; and as Thou hast been pleased lately to permit me to look to a way of life to which formerly I dared not to do, let the leisure I shall enjoy enlarge my warmth of heart towards Thee. Make every branch of study which I may pursue strengthen my confidence in Thy ever-ruling providence, that, undeceived by views of false philosophy, I may ever in singleness of heart elevate my mind from Thy works unto Thy divine essence. Keep from me a vain and overbearing spirit; let me- ever have a thorough sense of my own ignorance and weakness; and keep me through all the trials and troubles of a transitory state in body and soul unto everlasting life, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.”

James David Forbes (1809–1868) Scottish physicist and glaciologist

"Completing my Twenty-first Year" (1839), a prayer written by Forbes on April 20th, 1830. Life and letters of James David Forbes p. 450.

Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex photo
John Ruysbroeck photo
Benito Mussolini photo

“The Truth Apparent, apparent to everyone's eyes who are not blinded by dogmatism, is that men are perhaps weary of liberty. They have a surfeit of it. Liberty is no longer the virgin, chaste and severe, to be fought for … we have buried the putrid corpse of liberty … the Italian people are a race of sheep.”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

Written statement (1934), quoted in Fascism and Democracy in the Human Mind : A Bridge Between Mind and Society (2006) by Israel W. Charny, p. 23
Variant translation: The truth is that men are tired of liberty.
Attributed to Mussolini in Crash Gordon and the Mysteries of Kingsburg (2007) by Derek Swannson, p. 507; similar remarks are also attributed to Adolf Hitler
A similar statement appears in "Forza e Consenso" Gerarchia magazine (March 1923), excerpted in Cos'è il fascismo https://www.liberliber.it/online/autori/autori-m/benito-mussolini/cose-il-fascismo/ (1983)
1930s

Stanley Baldwin photo
John Ralston Saul photo
Alexandre Dumas photo

“Eh! sire, that is the fate of truth; she is a stern companion; she bristles all over with steel; she wounds those whom she attacks, and sometimes him who speaks her.”

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) French writer and dramatist, father of the homonym writer and dramatist

Le Vicomte de Bragelonne ou Dix ans plus (The Vicomte de Bragelonne) (1847)

James Jeans photo
Simon Singh photo
Wilhelm Reich photo
Elbert Hubbard photo

“Woman's inaptitude for reasoning has not prevented her from arriving at truth; nor has man's ability to reason prevented him from floundering in absurdity.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)

“We hear you, Father,” he said surprisingly. “Yet we sense that though what you say is the truth, it is not the whole truth.”

James Blish (1921–1975) American author

Source: Short fiction, Midsummer Century (1972), Chapter 9 (p. 61)

Edward Young photo

“Truth never was indebted to a lie.”

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night VIII, Line 587.

Thomas Otway photo
Bob Dylan photo

“Here's the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don't find it anywhere else.”

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

Dylan Revisited http://europe.newsweek.com/dylan-revisited-174056?rm=eu, Newsweek (1997)

Andrew Vachss photo
Henri of Luxembourg photo

“Each of us, within the limits of our resources, is set to be an actor, in having a lead role in one's own life, but above all by committing to others…a profound truth [is] that everyone has a role to play in society beyond their own fate.”

Henri of Luxembourg (1955) Grand Duke (head of state) of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

Jidderee vun eis ass, an der Mooss vun sengen Mëttelen, dozou opgeruff selwer Akteur ze sinn, an dem e säi Liewen an d’Hand hëlt, mee och an dem en sech fir déi aner engagéiert...eng profund Wourecht, an zwar dass Jiddereen an der Gesellschaft eng Roll ze spillen huet, déi säin eegent Schicksal iwwertrëfft.
Christmas message http://www.monarchie.lu/fr/actualites/discours/2014/12/discours-noel-lu/index.html (25 December 2014)
Society

William John Macquorn Rankine photo
Gideon Mantell photo
Michael Moorcock photo

“Everything means nothing—that is the only truth.”

Michael Moorcock (1939) English writer, editor, critic

Source: Short fiction, To Rescue Tanelorn... (1962), p. 472

Thomas Watson photo

“Truth is unerring; it is the star which leads to Christ. Truth is pure”

Thomas Watson (1616–1686) English nonconformist preacher and author

Psa 119:140
Heaven Taken By Storm

Richard Russo photo
Graham Greene photo

“A petty reason perhaps why novelists more and more try to keep a distance from journalists is that novelists are trying to write the truth and journalists are trying to write fiction.”

Graham Greene (1904–1991) English writer, playwright and literary critic

Letter to critic Stephen Pile, Sunday Times (London) (January 18, 1981)

George William Russell photo

“Nay, let this earth, your portion, likewise cover
All the old anger, setting us apart:
Always, in all, in truth was I your lover;
Always, I held your heart.”

George William Russell (1867–1935) Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, and artistic painter

You Would Have Understood Me

Bell Hooks photo
Laxmi Prasad Devkota photo
James Russell Lowell photo

“Great truths are portions of the soul of man;
Great souls are portions of eternity.”

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat

Sonnet VI
Sonnets (1844)

Wallace Stevens photo
Herbert Marcuse photo
Michel Seuphor photo
Jack Johnson (musician) photo
Rousas John Rushdoony photo
William A. Dembski photo

“What I propose, then, is a strategy for interrogating the Darwinists to, as it were, squeeze the truth out of them.”

William A. Dembski (1960) American intelligent design advocate

The Vise Strategy: Squeezing the Truth out of Darwinists
Uncommon Descent
2005-05-11
http://www.uncommondescent.com/evolution/the-vise-strategy-squeezing-the-truth-out-of-darwinists/
2011-10-23
2000s

Dimitrije Tucović photo
Ralph Ellison photo

“…there must be possible a fiction which, leaving sociology and case histories to the scientist, can arrive at the truth about the human condition, here and now, with all the bright magic of the fairy tale.”

Ralph Ellison (1914–1994) American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer

"Brave Words for a Startling Occasion" (1953), in The Collected Essays, ed. John F. Callahan (New York: Modern Library, 1995), p. 153.

Edward Albee photo

“A play is fiction — and fiction is fact distilled into truth.”

Edward Albee (1928–2016) American playwright

The New York Times (18 September 1966)

C. Rajagopalachari photo
George William Russell photo

“Age is no more near than youth
To the sceptre and the crown.
Vain the wisdom, vain the truth;
Do not lay thy rapture down.”

George William Russell (1867–1935) Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, and artistic painter

The Nuts of Knowledge (1903)

Ursula K. Le Guin photo
Euripidés photo

“The words of truth are naturally simple, and justice needs no subtle interpretations, for it has a fitness in itself”

ἁπλοῦς ὁ μῦθος τῆς ἀληθείας ἔφυ,
κοὐ ποικίλων δεῖ τἄνδιχ᾽ ἑρμηνευμάτων
Source: The Phoenician Women, Lines 469–470

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“The soul active sees absolute truth; and utters truth, or creates.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

1830s, The American Scholar http://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm (1837)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

“A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal in satisfying his vices. And it all comes from lying — to others and to yourself.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) Russian author

Variant translations:
Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others. Not respecting anyone, he ceases to love, and having no love, he gives himself up to passions and coarse pleasures, in order to occupy and amuse himself, and in his vices reaches complete bestiality, and it all comes from lying continually to others and to himself. A man who lies to himself is often the first to take offense. It sometimes feels very good to take offense, doesn't it? And surely he knows that no one has offended him, and that he himself has invented the offense and told lies just for the beauty of it, that he has exaggerated for the sake of effect, that he has picked on a word and made a mountain out of a pea — he knows all of that, and still he is the first to take offense, he likes feeling offended, it gives him great pleasure, and thus he reaches the point of real hostility… Do get up from your knees and sit down, I beg you, these posturings are false, too.
Part I, Book I: A Nice Little Family, Ch. 2 : The Old Buffoon; as translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, p. 44
The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880)

Arthur Schopenhauer photo
Francesco Petrarca photo
Yoshida Shoin photo
Democritus photo

“This argument too shows that in truth we know nothing about anything, but every man shares the generally prevailing opinion.”

Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory

Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Fragments

H.L. Mencken photo
Leó Szilárd photo
Frederick William Faber photo
Hannah Arendt photo
Poul Anderson photo
Thomas Jefferson photo
Matt Dillahunty photo
Charles Sumner photo
John Lancaster Spalding photo
William Whewell photo
William Penn photo

“Zeal ever follows an appearance of truth, and the assured are too apt to be warm; but it is their weak side in argument; zeal being better shown against sin than persons, or their mistakes.”

William Penn (1644–1718) English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania

143
Fruits of Solitude (1682), Part I

Henry Fairfield Osborn photo

“This chain of human ancestors was totally unknown to Darwin. He could not have even dreamed of such a flood of proof and truth.”

Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857–1935) American geologist, paleontologist, and eugenist

Evolution and Religion in Education (1926), p. 41

Joseph Alois Schumpeter photo
Rollo May photo
Joseph Goebbels photo
Peter Paul Rubens photo
Rosey Grier photo
Alfred Russel Wallace photo

“On the question of the "origin of species" Mr. Haughton enlarges considerably; but his chief arguments are reduced to the setting-up of "three unwarrantable assumptions," which he imputes to the Lamarckians and Darwinians, and then, to use his own words, "brings to the ground like a child's house of cards." The first of these is "the indefinite variation of species continuously in the one direction." Now this is certainly never assumed by Mr. Darwin, whose argument is mainly grounded on the fact that variations occur in every direction. This is so obvious that it hardly needs insisting on. In every large family there is almost always one child taller, one darker, one thinner than the rest; one will have a larger nose, another a larger eye: they vary morally as well; some are more poetical, others more morose; one has a genius for numbers, another for painting. It is the same in animals: the puppies, or kittens, or rabbits of one litter differ in many ways from each other - in colour, in size, in disposition; so that, though they do not "vary continuously in one direction," they do vary continuously in many directions; and thus there is always material for natural selection to act upon in some direction that may be advantageous. […] I will only, in conclusion, quote from it a short paragraph which contains an important truth, but which may very fairly be applied in other quarters than those for which the author intended it: - "No progress in natural science is possible as long as men will take their rude guesses at truth for facts, and substitute the fancies of their imagination for the sober rules of reasoning."”

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist

"Remarks on the Rev. S. Haughton's Paper on the Bee's Cell, And on the Origin of Species" (1863).

Morarji Desai photo

“To live a life of truth one has to suffer, but must suffer cheerfully”

Morarji Desai (1896–1995) Former Indian Finance Minister, Freedom Fighters, Former prime minister

Morarji Desai speaks about life and celibacy

Samuel Butler photo

“Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Falsehood, iii
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XIX - Truth and Convenience

Girolamo Cardano photo
Albert Mackey photo

“The truth is that Masonry is undoubtedly a religious institution, its religion being of that universal kind in which all men agree.”

Albert Mackey (1807–1881) U.S. writer on freemasonry

Quoted in: Chalmers Izett Paton (1872) Freemasonry and its jurisprudence, p. 56.

Charles Simic photo
Julia Ward Howe photo
Muhammad photo
Tryon Edwards photo
Buckminster Fuller photo

“The eternal is omniembracing and permeative; and the temporal is linear. This opens up a very high order of generalizations of generalizations. The truth could not be more omni-important, although it is often manifestly operative only as a linear identification of a special-case experience on a specialized subject.”

Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist

1005.52 http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/s10/p0520.html#1005.50
1970s, Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking (1975), "Synergy" onwards