Famously Said Random quote

Quotes about truth and lies

458 quotes from 240 people

Most readBy personPage 6 of 31

Who’s Britannica to tell me that the Panama Canal was built in 1914? If I want to say that it was built in 1941, that’s my right as an American.
Stephen Colbertborn 1964White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner (April 2006)
- Comedy
- Facts
He, who begins by loving Christianity better than Truth, will proceed by loving his own Sect or Church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge1772–1834Aids to Reflection (1825), Aphorism 63, p. 89
- Christianity
Truths … are too often considered as so true, that they lose all the power of truth, and lie bed-ridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most despised and exploded errors.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge1772–1834Aids to Reflection (1825), Aphorism 1, p. 1
In all my experience along the dirtiest ways of this dirty little world, I have never met with such a thing as a trifle yet.
Wilkie Collins1824–1889The Moonstone (1868), First Period: The Loss of the Diamond (1848), Chapter XIIIn context
- Experience
- Facts
Lies, my boy, are known in a moment. There are two kinds of lies, lies with short legs and lies with long noses. Yours, just now, happen to have long noses.
Carlo Collodi1826–1890The Adventures of Pinocchio (1881–1883), Chapter 17In context
The greatest friend of Truth is time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion Humility.
CCCharles Caleb Colton1777–1832
If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things.
Confucius551–479 BCAnalects, Chapter XIII
If I hear the Way [of truth] in the morning, I am content even to die in that evening.
Confucius551–479 BCAnalects, Chapter IV
- Life & Death
They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.
Confucius551–479 BCAnalects, Chapter VI
Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality.
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Under Western Eyes (1911), Pt. I
- Talking
You know I hate, detest, and can’t bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appalls me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies⁠—which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world⁠—what I want to forget.
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Heart of Darkness (1899), Part IIn context
Perhaps all the wisdom, and all truth, and all sincerity, are just compressed into that inappreciable moment of time in which we step over the threshold of the invisible.
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Heart of Darkness (1899), Part IIIIn context
- Life & Death
- Wisdom
Chase after the truth like all hell and you’ll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat tails.
Clarence Darrow1857–1938The Sign (May 1938)
Denial of one’s better self seals the lips or pollutes them. Fidelity to conviction opens them and truth blossoms in eloquence.
Eugene V. Debs1855–1926The Secret of Efficient Expression (1911)
- Talking
Ask no questions, and you’ll be told no lies.
Charles Dickens1812–1870Great Expectations (1861), Chapter IIIn context