TRUTH QUOTES XIX

quotations about truth

The semblance of absolute truth is nothing but absolute conformism.

PAUL FEYERABEND

Against Method


The cold passion for truth hunts in no pack.

ROBINSON JEFFERS

"Be Angry at the Sun"

Tags: Robinson Jeffers


Spurn not at seeming error, but dig below its surface for the truth;
And beware of seeming truths that grow on the roots of error.

MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER

Proverbial Philosophy

Tags: Martin Farquhar Tupper


Serious misfortunes, originating in misrepresentation, frequently flow and spread before they can be dissipated by truth.

GEORGE WASHINGTON

letter to John Jay, May 8, 1796

Tags: George Washington


Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

OSCAR WILDE

The Critic as Artist

Tags: Oscar Wilde


Lower a bucket into a well of self-deception, and what comes up must be immortal truth, mustn't it?

CHARLES READE

The Cloister and the Hearth

Tags: Charles Reade


Half truths were a wonderful way to inspire credibility.

DAVID BALDACCI

The Winner

Tags: David Baldacci


A half-truth does more mischief than a whole lie.

IVAN PANIN

Thoughts


Truth is more deceptive than falsehood, for it is more frequently presented by those from whom we do not expect it, and so has against it a numerical presumption.

AMBROSE BIERCE

"Epigrams of a Cynic"


Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

"University Education", Fact and Fiction

Tags: Bertrand Russell


Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter.

JOHN MILTON

Areopagitica

Tags: John Milton


The truth is never dangerous. Except when told.

PHILIP MOELLER

Helena's Husband

Tags: Philip Moeller


The truth has no need to be uttered to be made apparent, and ... one may perhaps gather it with more certainty, without waiting for words and without even taking any account of them, from countless outward signs, even from certain invisible phenomena, analogous in the sphere of human character to what atmospheric changes are in the physical world.

MARCEL PROUST

The Guermantes Way

Tags: Marcel Proust


So multifarious are the different classes of truths, and so multitudinous the truths in each class, that it may be undoubtingly affirmed that no man has yet lived who could so much as name all the different classes and subdivisions of truths, and far less anyone who was acquainted with all the truths belonging to any one class. What wonderful extent, what amazing variety, what collective magnificence! And if such be the number of truths pertaining to this tiny ball of earth, how must it be in the incomprehensible immensity!

HORACE MANN

Thoughts


No point in ignoring the truth. Doesn't make it worse to have it said out loud.

STEPHENIE MEYER

The Host

Tags: Stephenie Meyer


It is as certain as it is strange that truth and error come from one and the same source. Thus it is that we are often not at liberty to do violence to error, because at the same time we do violence to truth.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe


I do not think that so much harm is done by giving error to a child, as by giving truth in a lifeless form.

WILLIAM E. CHANNING

Thoughts

Tags: William E. Channing


But suppose it was truth double strong, it were no truth to me if I couldna take it in. I daresay there's truth in yon Latin book on your shelves; but it's gibberish and no truth to me, unless I know the meaning o' the words.

ELIZABETH GASKELL

North and South

Tags: Elizabeth Gaskell


Arguably, this strategy is not viable beyond laboratory settings, because the truth is always unknown on the streets.

ANNA K. BOBAK

"Can We Improve National Security Using What We Know about Face Recognition?", Scientific American, April 18, 2017


All men need truth as they need water; if wise men are as high grounds where the springs rise, ordinary men are the lower grounds which their waters nourish.

ELIZA COOK

Diamond Dust