“It is not truth that makes man great, but man that makes truth great.”

“Great truths are portions of the soul of man;
Great souls are portions of eternity.”

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat

“If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.”

Horace Mann (1796–1859) American politician

“It is best not to go on for great quest for truth, it will only make you miserable”

René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

“In the beginning when the world was young there were a great many thoughts but no such thing as truth. Man made the truths himself and each truth was a composite of a great many vague thoughts. All about in the world were truths and they were all beautiful.”

Sherwood Anderson book Winesburg, Ohio

“…the great truth which lies at the foundation of all society—that every man has property in his fellow-man!”

George Fitzhugh (1806–1881) American activist

“While the average well adjusted man can make the reality that is generally accepted as truth into his own truth, the creative searcher after truth seeks and finds his own truth which he then wants to make general.”

Otto Rank (1884–1939) Austrian psychologist

“Any woman or man who would write the truth of their lives would write a great work. But no one has dared to write the truth of their lives.”

Isadora Duncan (1877–1927) American dancer and choreographer

“The deliberate, solemn conviction of good men through the world, that slavery is a grievous wrong to human nature, will make itself felt. To increase this moral power is every man's duty. To embody and express this great truth is in every man's power; and thus every man can do something to break the chain of the slave.”

William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) United States Unitarian clergyman

“The opposite of every great truth is also a great truth”

Niels Bohr (1885–1962) Danish physicist