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Quotes about truth and lies

458 quotes from 240 people

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In every branch of knowledge the progress is proportional to the amount of facts on which to build, and therefore to the facility of obtaining data.
James Clerk Maxwell1831–1879Letter to Lewis Campbell (9 November 1851), in Lewis Campbell and William Garnett, The Life of James Clerk Maxwell (1882), ch. 6, p. 159
- Facts
- Knowledge
The symmetry of form attainable in pure fiction can not so readily be achieved in a narration essentially having less to do with fable than with fact. Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges…
Herman Melville1819–1891Billy Budd, Sailor (1891), Ch. 28
- Writing
All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks.
Herman Melville1819–1891Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter XXXVIIn context
- Philosophy
Truth hath no confines.
Herman Melville1819–1891Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter XXXVIIn context
It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956
The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth⁠—that the error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it is cured on one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956Prejudices, Third Series (1922), Ch. 3 “Footnote on Criticism”, pp. 85-104
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)
I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956“What I Believe” in The Forum 84 (September 1930), p. 139; some of these expressions were also used separately in other Mencken essays.
- Freedom
- Knowledge
Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think.
John Stuart Mill1806–1873On Liberty (1859), Ch. II: Of the Liberty of Thought and DiscussionIn context
- Thinking
If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.
John Stuart Mill1806–1873On Liberty (1859), Chapter II (1 of 2)In context
- Debate
However unwillingly a person who has a strong opinion may admit the possibility that his opinion may be false, he ought to be moved by the consideration that however true it may be, if it is not fully, frequently, and fearlessly discussed, it will be held as a dead dogma, not a living truth.
John Stuart Mill1806–1873On Liberty (1859), Chapter II (1 of 2)In context
- Debate
Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.
John Milton1608–1674The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643), Introduction
But all was false and hollow; though his tongue
Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reason
John Milton1608–1674Paradise Lost (1667), Book IIIn context
- Talking
The public scandal is what brings offence,
And secret sinning is not sin at all.
Molière1622–1673Tartuffe (1664–1669), Act IV, Scene V, spoken by TartuffeIn context
- Morality
The truth is I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let men sometimes fool themselves.
Marilyn Monroe1926–1962My Story (1974; co-written with Ben Hecht; 2007 edition), p. 133
- Men