E. M. Forster on truth and lies

A humanist has four leading characteristics — curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.

Adventures do occur, but not punctually.

Long books, when read, are usually overpraised, because the reader wants to convince others and himself that he has not wasted his time.

Beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all ye know on Earth, and all ye need to know.

John Keats1795–1821Ode on a Grecian Urn, Stanza 5. The final lines of this poem have been rendered in various ways in different editions, some placing the entire last two lines within quotation marks, others only the statement “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” …In context

• Beauty

This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

William Shakespeare1564–1616Hamlet (1600–1), Act I, scene iii.In context

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

Winston Churchill1874–1965