Unsourced variant: A truth that disheartens because it is true is of more value than the most stimulating of falsehoods. 
Wisdom and Destiny (1898)
                                    
“The only activities of true value are those which aim at inner transformation.”
Inspire Yourself
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Vernon Howard 53
American writer 1918–1992Related quotes
Source: Psychology and Industrial Efficiency (1913), p. 33
“Nowadays the true transgressors are those who possess values.”
                                        
                                        From the  Aphorisms http://www.prevale.net/aphorisms.html page of the official website of Prevale 
Original: (it) Oggigiorno i veri trasgressori sono coloro che possiedono dei valori.
                                    
                                        
                                        Life and the Poet (1942) 
Context: The ultimate aim of politics is not politics, but the activities which can be practised within the political framework of the State. Therefore an effective statement of these activities — e. g. science, art, religion — is in itself a declaration of ultimate aims around which the political means will crystallise … a society with no values outside of politics is a machine carrying its human cargo, with no purpose in its institutions reflecting their care, eternal aspirations, loneliness, need for love.
                                    
[Raman, C. V., Chandralekha, Why the Sky is Blue: Dr. C.V. Raman Talks about Science, http://books.google.com/books?id=LOC3vbnTgHYC&pg=PT1, 2010, Tulika Books, 978-81-8146-846-8, 17]
Source: The Holotropic Mind: The Three Levels of Human Consciousness and How They Shape Our Lives
Source: Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, 1981, p. 223 as cited in: Gillian Ragsdell, Daune West, Jennifer Wilby (2002) Systems Theory and Practice in the Knowledge Age. p. 82. In the original quote Checkland summarised his earlier work with Smyth published in 1976.