“I have said to you to speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to tell lies is much worse.”

— Oscar Wilde , book De Profundis

De Profundis (1897)

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Oscar Wilde 812

Irish writer and poet 1854–1900

Publilio Siro Latin writer

Maxim 232
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave

“Aristotle was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it. Said he, "That when they speak truth they are not believed."”

Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers

Aristotle, 9.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 5: The Peripatetics

“But one thing I can promise you is this: I will always tell you the truth. I speak the truth for all of you, and for everyone in this country who doesn’t have a voice.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Quoted by [Three years ago today: Trump promised “I will always tell you the truth”, Jon, Perr, August 18, 2019, January 16, 2021, Daily Kos, https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/18/1879762/-Three-years-ago-today-Trump-promised-I-will-always-tell-you-the-truth]).
2016, August 2016

“As a child I was taught that to tell the truth was often painful. As an adult I have learned that not to tell the truth is more painful, and that the fear of telling the truth — whatever the truth may be — that fear is the most painful sensation of a moral life.”

June Jordan (1936–2002) Poet, essayist, playwright, feminist and bisexual activist

"Life After Lebanon" (1984), later published in On Call : Political Essays (1985), and Some of Us Did Not Die : New and Selected Essays of June Jordan (2002)