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Quotes about truth and lies

458 quotes from 240 people

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Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.
Mark Twain1835–1910
A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.
Mark Twain1835–1910And I by Opie Read
One of the striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.
Mark Twain1835–1910Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894), Ch. 7.
The reason we hold truth in such respect is because we have so little opportunity to get familiar with it.
Mark Twain1835–1910
If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.
Mark Twain1835–1910
Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
Mark Twain1835–1910
- Facts
The reason why truth is so much stranger than fiction is that there is no requirement for it to be consistent.
Mark Twain1835–1910
Most writers regard truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.
Mark Twain1835–1910Said to portrait painter Samuel Johnson Woolf, cited in Here am I (1941), Samuel Johnson Woolf
- Writing
Of all the animals, man is the only one that lies.
Mark Twain1835–1910
Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.
Mark Twain1835–1910
When in doubt, tell the truth.
Mark Twain1835–1910Following the Equator (1897), Ch. 2, Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar.
The silent colossal National Lie that is the support and confederate of all the tyrannies and shams and inequalities and unfairnesses that afflict the peoples — that is the one to throw bricks and sermons at.
Mark Twain1835–1910“My First Lie, and How I Got Out of It”, in The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays (1900)
You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.
Mark Twain1835–1910Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Chapter IIn context
- Writing
Homely truth is unpalatable.
Mark Twain1835–1910The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Chapter XXIIn context
The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.
Neil deGrasse Tysonborn 1958Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO, 4 February 2011)
- Science