“The truth frightens people because it isn't stable. It shifts every day.”

Source: Death of Kings

Good Intentions (1942), Seeing Eye to Eye is Believing

Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. XV
Misquoted as "Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense." by Laurence J. Peter in "Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time", among many others.
Following the Equator (1897)
Source: Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

1930s, Fireside Chat in the night before signing the Fair Labor Standards (1938)
Context: The Congress has understood that under modern conditions government has a continuing responsibility to meet continuing problems, and that Government cannot take a holiday of a year, a month, or even a day just because a few people are tired or frightened by the inescapable pace of this modern world in which we live.

A.A. Attanasio. Centuries. 1997. p.310 ISBN 978-1-60450-283-1

Source: Changes

The Last Lecture (2007)
Context: How do you get people to help you? You can’t get there alone. People have to help you and I do believe in karma. I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth; by being earnest. I'll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short-term, earnest is long term.

Source: Lord of the Flies

2000s, Democratic National Convention speech (2008)