“Truth had run through my fingers. Every drop had escaped.”
Virginia Woolf book A Room of One's Own
Source: A Room of One's Own
“Truth had run through my fingers. Every drop had escaped.”
Virginia Woolf book A Room of One's Own
Source: A Room of One's Own
“Truth is the only safe ground to stand on.”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) Suffragist and Women's Rights activist
Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols
Variant: Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen?
Source: Twilight of the Idols
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Italian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and astronomer
Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences (1638); Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche, intorno à due nuove scienze, as translated by Henry Crew and Alfonso de Salvio (1914)
Other quotes
Source: Discorsi E Dimostrazioni Matematiche: Intorno a Due Nuoue Scienze, Attenenti Alla Mecanica & I Movimenti Locali
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.”
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher
“Peace is such a precious jewel that I would give anything for it but truth.”
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) Theologician from Wales
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Part 1, Chapter 13; sometimes paraphrased: "Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth."
Books, Coningsby (1844), Contarini Fleming (1832)
“A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Mark Twain and I by Opie Read
Nicholas Sparks book The Lucky One
Elizabeth Green, Chapter 15, Beth, p. 274
Variant: Sometimes the most ordinary things could be made extraordinary, simply by doin them with the right people.(Elizabeth Green)
Source: 2000s, The Lucky One (2008)
“… the three things I cannot change are the past, the truth, and you.”
Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist
Source: Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers
Richard Dawkins book The Selfish Gene
Preface to the first edition
Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989)
“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Variant: A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
On Stanley Baldwin, as cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), Ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 322 ISBN 1586486381 <br class="br">Also quoted by Kay Halle in Irrepressible Churchill: A Treasury of Winston Churchill's Wit http://books.google.com/books?id=b0MTAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Occasionally+he+stumbled+over+the+truth+but+hastily+picked+himself+up+and+hurried+on+as+if+nothing+had+happened%22&pg=PA133#v=onepage (1966). <br class="br">The 1930s <br class="br">Variant: Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
“We taste and feel and see the truth. We do not reason ourselves into it.”
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright
“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Italian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and astronomer
As quoted in Angels in the workplace: stories and inspirations for creating a new world of work (1999) by Melissa Giovagnoli
Attributed
“the worst part about being lied to is knowing you werent worth the truth”
Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Said to portrait painter Samuel Johnson Woolf, cited in Here am I (1941), Samuel Johnson Woolf; this has often been abbreviated: Most writers regard truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.
Context: A critic never made or killed a book or a play. The people themselves are the final judges. It is their opinion that counts. After all, the final test is truth. But the trouble is that most writers regard truth as their most valuable possession and therefore are most economical in its use.
“Don't worry about being effective. Just concentrate on being faithful to the truth.”
Dorothy Day (1897–1980) Social activist
Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice
Memoirs (trans. Machen 1894), book 1, Preface http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/casanova/c33m/preface2.html <br class="br">Referenced
W.E.B. Du Bois book The Souls of Black Folk
Source: The Souls of Black Folk (1903), Ch. XII: Of Alexander Crummell
“It is a natural illness of man to think that he possesses the truth directly…”
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher
C'est une maladie naturelle à l'homme de croire qu'il possède la vérité directement…
Section I
Variant translation: It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the Truth.
On the Spirit of Geometry
John Taylor Gatto (1935–2018) American teacher, book author
Source: A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling, Berkeley Hills Books (2000) p. 178
“The search for truth is more precious than its possession.”
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic
Misattributed
“Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.”
Stephen King book It
Variant: And almost idly, in a kind of sidethought, Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Source: It (1986)
“No one believes a liar. Even when she's telling the truth.”
Sara Shepard (1973) Author
Source: Heartless
“A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Source: Complete Works of Oscar Wilde
Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author
The Root of All Evil? (January 2006)
“I prefer you like this, when you're in a foul mood, because you tell the truth.”
Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Angel's Game
Source: The Angel's Game
“I told the truth, I didn't come to fool you”
Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter
“Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.”
Friedrich Nietzsche book Human, All Too Human
Section IX, "Man Alone with Himself" / aphorism 483
Human, All Too Human (1878), Helen Zimmern translation
Context: Enemies of truth. Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
“Let us accept truth, even when it surprises us and alters our views.”
George Sand (1804–1876) French novelist and memoirist; pseudonym of Lucile Aurore Dupin
Source: Letters Of George Sand
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer
Variant: Yet it is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.
“Discussion is impossible with someone who claims not to seek the truth, but already to possess it.”
Romain Rolland (1866–1944) French author
Source: Above the Battle
W.E.B. Du Bois book The Souls of Black Folk
Source: The Souls of Black Folk (1903), Ch. V: Of the Wings of Atalanta
“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
“… logical validity is not a guarantee of truth.”
David Foster Wallace book Infinite Jest
Source: Infinite Jest
Friedrich Nietzsche book Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks
Source: Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks
“Politics is largely governed by sententious platitudes which are devoid of truth”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
“No one dies of fatal truths nowadays: there are too many antidotes.”
Friedrich Nietzsche book Human, All Too Human
Source: Human, All Too Human
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1964)
Context: I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
Context: I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)
Source: NIV Lessons from Life Bible: Personal Reflections with Jimmy Carter
“The world hid its head in the sands of convention, so that by seeing nothing it might avoid Truth.”
Radclyffe Hall book The Well of Loneliness
Source: The Well of Loneliness
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“I sometimes think that I enjoy suffering. But the truth is I would prefer something else.”
Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher
“Wanting to be liked can get in the way of truth.”
Delia Ephron (1944) American writer and film producer
Source: Sister Mother Husband Dog: Etc.
“The truth may be out there, but the lies are inside your head.”
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
“A tautology's truth is certain, a proposition's possible, a contradiction's impossible.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Certain, possible, impossible: here we have the first indication of the scale that we need in the theory of probability.
4.464
Original German: Die Wahrheit der Tautologie ist gewiss, des Satzes möglich, der Kontradiktion unmöglich
Source: 1920s, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)
“Truths are illlusions which we have forgotten are illusions.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
“There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.”
Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace
Source: War and Peace
“My dear fellow, the truth isn't quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl.”
Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest
Jack, Act I
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
“Truth can only be found in one place: the code.”
Robert C. Martin (1952) American software consultant
Source: Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
“All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand author
Source: Journal entry (14 October 1922), published in The Journal of Katherine Mansfield (1927)
Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose
Temi, Adso, i profeti e coloro disposti a morire per la verità, ché di solito fan morire moltissimo con loro, spesso prima di loro, talvolta al posto loro. <br class="br"> William of Baskerville http://books.google.com/books?id=XY2vXKsHbzIC&q=&quot;Fear+prophets+adso+and+those+prepared+to+die+for+the+truth+for+as+a+rule+they+make+many+others+die+with+them+often+before+them+at+times+instead+of+them&quot;&pg=PA549#v=onepage <br class="br">Source: The Name of the Rose (1980)
“Sometimes you have to lie. But to yourself you must always tell the truth.”
Louise Fitzhugh book Harriet the Spy
Source: Harriet the Spy
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright
A Drinking Song http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1399/ <br class="br">The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910)
Luce Irigaray (1930) feminist, philosopher, linguist, psychoanalyst, sociologist and cultural theorist
“The truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is.”
Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) South african Nobel-winning writer
"Leaving School—II", London Magazine (May 1963) http://www.thelondonmagazine.org/leaving-school-ii/ http://www.thelondonmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/May-1963-Cover.jpg
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist