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Quotes about truth and lies

458 quotes from 240 people

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Those who never retract their opinions love themselves more than they love truth.
Joseph Joubert1754–1824Pearls of Thought (1881), p. 188
I have thought it my duty to exhibit things as they are, not as they ought to be.
Alexander Hamilton1757–1804Letter to Robert Morris (13 August 1782)
It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter From Thomas Jefferson to the Rev. James Madison, 19 July 1788
- Ideas
I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth — and truth rewarded me.
Simone de Beauvoir1908–1986All Said and Done (1972), p. 16
The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
Not believing others implies that you yourself are deceitful. The liar suffers twice: he neither believes nor is believed.
Baltasar Gracián1601–1658The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647), Maxim 154 (p. 87)
When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.
Thomas Sowellborn 1930Barbarians inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays (1999)
All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.
John Quincy Adams1767–1848Letter to William Eustis (22 June 1809), published in Writings of John Quincy, Adams (1914), The Macmillan company.
When others asked the truth of me, I was convinced it was not the truth they wanted, but an illusion they could bear to live with.
Anaïs Nin1903–1977November, 1933
Truth must of necessity be stranger than fiction … for fiction is the creation of the human mind, and therefore is congenial to it.
G. K. Chesterton1874–1936The Club of Queer Trades (1905), Ch. 4 “Speculation of the House Agent”
The truth is not simply what you think it is; it is also the circumstances in which it is said, and to whom, why, and how it is said.
Václav Havel1936–2011Disturbing the Peace (1986), Ch. 2: Writing for the Stage, p. 67
Understand this, I mean to arrive at the truth. The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seekers after it.
Agatha Christie1890–1976The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), Hercule Poirot
It is not the possession of truth, but the success which attends the seeking after it, that enriches the seeker and brings happiness to him.
Max Planck1858–1947Where Is Science Going? (1932), “Is the External World Real?”, p. 83
- Happiness
The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.
Edward R. Murrow1908–1965On receiving the “Family of Man” Award from the Protestant Council of the City of New York (28 October 1964)
- Technology
The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has. Even when you make one out on the level, you don’t know when it’s through if you are a Crook or a Martyr.
Will Rogers1879–1935The Illiterate Digest (1924)
- Comedy
- Money