Quotes about truth and lies
458 quotes from 240 people
Where it concerns himself,
Who’s angry at a slander makes it true.
Ben Jonson1572–1637Catiline His Conspiracy (1611), Act III, scene iAll I can hope to teach my son is to tell the truth and fear no man.
Edward R. Murrow1908–1965Speech to his staff (1954)It takes two to speak the truth, — one to speak, and another to hear.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849), WednesdayAnyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.
W. Somerset Maugham1874–1965“1896”, p. 17While both are dear, Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.
Aristotle384–322 BCNicomachean Ethics, Book I chapter 6, 1096a.16Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.
John Milton1608–1674The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643), IntroductionPerhaps only in a world of the blind will things be what they truly are.
José Saramago1922–2010Blindness (1995), p. 126There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1893), Act III (Crofts)Truth, in the matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900The Critic as Artist (1891), Part IIf names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things.
Confucius551–479 BCAnalects, Chapter XIIITruth draws strength from itself and not from the number of votes in its favour.
Pope Benedict XVI1927–2022Address to the Holy See’s representatives to international organizations (18 March 2006)If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.
Virginia Woolf1882–1941“The Leaning Tower”, lecture delivered to the Workers’ Educational Association, Brighton (May 1940)The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who have loved it.
George Santayana1863–1952Little Essays (1921), p. 107A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900The Critic as Artist (1891), Part IIIf I hear the Way [of truth] in the morning, I am content even to die in that evening.
Confucius551–479 BCAnalects, Chapter IV