“Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it.”

— Samuel Johnson

Actually said by Thomas Cooper, a U.S. politician.
Misattributed

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Samuel Johnson 362

English writer 1709–1784

Thomas Cooper (U.S. politician)

Lectures on the Elements of Political Economy, 1831.

“Cling to truth and it turns into falsehood. Understand falsehood and it turns into truth.”

Ryōkan (1758–1831) Japanese Buddhist monk

As translated in 1,001 Pearls of Wisdom (2006) by David Ross, p. 36
Context: Cling to truth and it turns into falsehood. Understand falsehood and it turns into truth. Truth and falsehood are two sides of the same coin. Neither accept one nor reject the other.

“A people that were to honor falsehood, defamation, fraud, and murder would be unable, indeed, to subsist for very long.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

1940s, Religion and Science: Irreconcilable? (1948)
Context: The moral attitudes of a people that is supported by religion need always aim at preserving and promoting the sanity and vitality of the community and its individuals, since otherwise this community is bound to perish. A people that were to honor falsehood, defamation, fraud, and murder would be unable, indeed, to subsist for very long.

“Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher

“The proximity between the counterfeit and the good coin does not make the good coin counterfeit nor the counterfeit good. In the same way the proximity between truth and falsehood does not make truth falsehood nor falsehood truth.”

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111) Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic

The Deliverance from Error https://www.amazon.com/Al-Ghazalis-Path-Sufism-Deliverance-al-Munqidh/dp/1887752307

“The nature of man is such that he tends to believe what he wants to believe. Whether it is true or not usually provides only a brief hesitation. Men believe on the basis of their likes and dislikes. Unfortunately, much of what we believe to be true may be partially true. Absolute truth or absolute falsehood is rare. A total falsehood is easier to detect than a partial falsehood. Even a total truth is totally true only in context.”

Robert LeFevre (1911–1986) American libertarian businessman

Source: A Way to Be Free: The Autobiography of Robert LeFevre, Volume I, (1999), p. 19

“Though Truth and Falsehood be
Near twins, yet Truth a little elder is.”

John Donne (1572–1631) English poet

Satyre III (c. 1598)

“Temperate, sincere, and intelligent inquiry and discussion are only to be dreaded by the advocates of error. The truth need not fear them…”

Benjamin Rush (1745–1813) American physician, educator, author

Provisions of the Last Will and Testament of Dr. James Rush http://books.google.com/books?id=lSowTqXCyyUC&pg=PA13&dq=%22dreaded+by+the+advocates+of+error%22&hl=en&ei=NCJGTP-fBJ-QnwfB8K2uBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=13&ved=0CGQQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q=%22dreaded%20by%20the%20advocates%20of%20error%22&f=false

“An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling falsehood.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World Revisited

Source: Brave New World Revisited (1958), Chapter 11 (p. 104)

“Who speaks the truth stabs Falsehood to the heart.”

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

L’ Envoi

“Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it.”

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Samuel Johnson 362

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