“The issue truth-versus-untruth is as far as possible kept in the background.”

— George Orwell

"The Prevention of Literature" (1946)
Context: The enemies of intellectual liberty always try to present their case as a plea for discipline versus individualism. The issue truth-versus-untruth is as far as possible kept in the background. Although the point of emphasis may vary, the writer who refuses to sell his opinions is always branded as a mere egoist. He is accused, that is, either of wanting to shut himself up in an ivory tower, or of making an exhibitionist display of his own personality, or of resisting the inevitable current of history in an attempt to cling to unjustified privileges.

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George Orwell 473

English author and journalist 1903–1950

Edmund Cooper (1926–1982) British writer

The Overman Culture (1971)

“When people reject a truth or an untruth it is not because it is a truth or an untruth that they reject it.
No, if it isn't in accord with their beliefs in the first place they simply say, "Nothing doing," and refuse to inspect it.”

Ogden Nash (1902–1971) American poet

Good Intentions (1942), Seeing Eye to Eye is Believing

“The most dangerous untruths are truths moderately distorted.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist

H 7
Variant translation: The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted.
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook H (1784-1788)

“This is not a left and right issue. This is the important thing to recognize: This is not about conservatives versus liberals.”

Lawrence Lessig (1961) American academic, political activist.

OSCON 2002
Context: This is not a left and right issue. This is the important thing to recognize: This is not about conservatives versus liberals.
In our case, in Eldred, we have this brief filed by 17 economists, including Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, Ronald Kost, Ken Arrow, you know, lunatics, right? Left-wing liberals, right? Friedman said he'd only join if the word "no-brainer" existed in the brief somewhere, like this was a complete no-brainer for him. This is not about left and right. This is about right and wrong. That's what this battle is.

“There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“No vision issue today is bigger than the question of efficiency versus some combination of innovation and customer service.”

John P. Kotter (1947) author of The heart of Change

Step 3, p. 69
The Heart of Change, (2002)

“Impure means result in an impure end… One cannot reach truth by untruthfulness. Truthful conduct alone can reach Truth.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

Harijan (13 July 1947) p. 232
1940s

“The truth can be spoken only by someone who is already at home in it; not by someone who still lives in untruthfulness, and does no more than reach out towards it from within untruthfulness.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 41e

“The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.”

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian

As quoted in Maxed Out : Hard Times, Easy Credit, and the Era of Predatory Lenders (2007) by James D. Scurlock; The quote does not appear in any of Acton's published writings. Ezra Pound attributes the exact quotation to Sir Alexander James Cockburn, Lord Chief Justice of England in Pound, Ezra. "'Ezra Pound Speaking': Radio Speeches of World War II", ed. Leonard W. Doob (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1978), 219. https://archive.org/stream/EzraPoundSpeaking-RadioSpeechesOfWorldWarIi/EzraPoundSpeaking#page/n116/mode/1up/search/Lord+Chief+Justice
Misattributed

“To speak a truth that belongs to another is untruth, for speaking belongs to living, hence to speak another’s truth is to live a life that is not one’s own.”

David L. Norton (1930–1995) American philosopher

Source: Personal Destinies: A Philosophy of Ethical Individualism (1976), p. 8

“The issue truth-versus-untruth is as far as possible kept in the background.”

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