
“A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.”
Mark Twain and I by Opie Read
"Lettre du Provincial" (21 December 1899)
Basic Verities, Prose and Poetry (1943)
“A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.”
Mark Twain and I by Opie Read
“He who knows the truth and does not speak it is a miserable coward.”
Alternate version: He who knows the truth and does not speak it truly is a miserable creature.
Quoted in "Julius Streicher" - Page 211 - By Randall L. Bytwerk
Novalis (1829)
Context: Man consists in Truth. If he exposes Truth, he exposes himself. If he betrays Truth, he betrays himself. We speak not here of lies, but of acting against Conviction.
“2084. He that does not speak Truth to me, does not believe me when I speak Truth.”
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
Boris Johnson insists he is 'all behind' May over Brexit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41289080 BBC News (16 September 2017)
2017
“Liars … when they speak the truth they are not believed.”
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
Context: My intellect tells me: "Tell the truth at any cost." The Little Man in me says: "It is stupid to expose oneself to the little man, to put oneself at his mercy. The Little Man does not want to hear the truth about himself. He does not want the great responsibility which is his. He wants to remain a Little Man. He wants to remain a Little Man, or wants to become a little great man. He wants to become rich, or a party leader, or commander of a legion, or secretary of the society for the abolition of vice. But he does not want to assume responsibility for his work..."