“A harmful truth is better than a useful lie.”
Thomas Mann book The Magic Mountain
Source: The Magic Mountain
Source: The Judges
“A harmful truth is better than a useful lie.”
Thomas Mann book The Magic Mountain
Source: The Magic Mountain
“But better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.”
Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner
Baba (58)
Source: The Kite Runner (2003)
“It's always better to live the truth than to live a lie.”
Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince
Source: Clockwork Prince
“The truth is balance, but the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.”
Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist
Review of Selected Essays by Simone Weil, The New York Review of Books (1 February 1963)
Context: The need for truth is not constant; no more than is the need for repose. An idea which is a distortion may have a greater intellectual thrust than the truth; it may better serve the needs of the spirit, which vary. The truth is balance, but the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate
" The Grandmother http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Alfred_Lord_Tennyson/14415", st. 8 (1864)
“There are worse things than a lie and there are better things than the truth!”
Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock
Source: Finnikin of the Rock
“It’s always better to tell a half-truth than a half-lie.”
Ben Aaronovitch book Moon Over Soho
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 13, “Autumn Leaves” (p. 277)
“In the lie of truth lies the truth.”
Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman
“Truth and Lie,” p. 66
The Sun Watches the Sun (1999), Sequence: “A Stone and a Word”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 4: 1944-1947
“Alanna didn't approve of lying, but in a pinch a lie was sometimes better than the truth.”
Tamora Pierce book Alanna: The First Adventure
Source: Alanna: The First Adventure