
“Truth — Something somehow discreditable to someone.”
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
Source: Empire novels (1950–1952), The Currents of Space (1952), Chapter 6 “The Ambassador” (p. 64)
“Truth — Something somehow discreditable to someone.”
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
“The dead may speak the truth only, even when it discredits themselves.”
The Golden Fleece (1944), Invocation.
General sources
“Advised a young diplomat "to tell the truth, and so puzzle and confound his enemies."”
Attributed. E.g., Vol 24, Encyclopedia Britannica of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature, page 721 https://books.google.com/books?id=_GlJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA721&lpg=PA721&dq=truth+wotton+confound+advice&source=bl&ots=-cGk3UDLLj&sig=ltOR1xtI9WFic1JWKiFmIZ8Yce0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjVkZCsj-jRAhXCyFQKHTmsCkAQ6AEIODAG#v=onepage&q=truth%20wotton%20confound%20advice&f=false (9th Ed. 1894).
Compare Mark Twain who, in Following the Equator, said "When in doubt, tell the truth" (which is often mis-quoted as containing an additional clause providing "it will confound your enemies and astound your friends").
Source: World Commodities and World Currencies (1944), Chapter X, Commodity Unit Stabilization, p. 114
Context: We have introduced the monetary factor not by necessity but by choice. Its advantages are obvious. Self-financed commodity units are not only interest free, but free also from dependence upon credit conditions. They are a step-desirable, it seems to us-in the direction of a goods economy as distinct from a money economy; but this step is taken without violence by merely identifying basic goods with money. It guarantees unfailing purchasing power where it is most needed-among the countless producers of raw commodities.
“Truth is a perilous commodity,” Julian admitted, “but so is ignorance, Adam—more so.”
Source: Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America (2009), p. 200
Source: Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women
Lin Yu-fang (2018) cited in " Haiti, Honduras could be next, Lin Yu-fang says http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2018/05/03/2003692421" on Taipei Times, 3 May 2018.
Source: A History of Economic Thought (1939), Chapter VI, Marx, p. 266
“Every commodity is compelled to chose some other commodity for its equivalent.”
Vol. I, Ch. 1, Section 3, pg. 65.
(Buch I) (1867)