Quotes about truth and lies
458 quotes from 240 people
Jiddu Krishnamurti1895–1986Second Talk in Poona (10 September 1958), J.Krishnamurti Online, JKO Serial No. 580910, Vol. XI, p. 20
W. E. B. Du Bois1868–1963“Criteria of Negro Art”, The Crisis (October 1926)
Roger Scruton1944–2020Modern Philosophy (1995), “The Nature of Philosophy” (p. 6)
Albert Schweitzer1875–1965On the Edge of the Primeval Forest (1922), Ch. XI: Conclusion (1956 edition)
Bertrand Russell1872–1970On History (1904)
John Locke1632–1704An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), Book IV, Ch. 19: Of Enthusiasm (Chapter added in the fourth edition).
Emily Dickinson1830–1886“Tell all the truth but tell it slant” (J1129 / Fr1263, c. 1872), first published in Bolts of Melody (1945)Tell all the Truth but tell it slant –
Success in Circuit liesEmily Dickinson1830–1886“Tell all the truth but tell it slant” (J1129 / Fr1263, c. 1872), first published in Bolts of Melody (1945)By a lie a man throws away and, as it were, annihilates his dignity as a man.
Immanuel Kant1724–1804Doctrine of Virtue as translated by Mary J. Gregor (1964), p. 93When truth cannot make itself known in words, it will make itself known in deeds.
Roger Scruton1944–2020“Should he have spoken?”, The New Criterion (September 2006), p. 22This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury1671–1713Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711), Vol. 1, p. 8; “A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm”.
William Tecumseh Sherman1820–1891Letter to the City of Atlanta (September 1864)
Sigmund Freud1856–1939Letter to Wilhelm Fliess (15 October 1897), as quoted in Origins of Psychoanalysis
