TRUTH QUOTES XIX

quotations about truth

It is as certain as it is strange that truth and error come from one and the same source. Thus it is that we are often not at liberty to do violence to error, because at the same time we do violence to truth.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe


There are many who say more than the truth on some occasions, and balance the account with their consciences by saying less than the truth on others. But the fact is that they are in both instances as fraudulent as he would be that exacted more than his due from his debtors, and paid less than their due to his creditors.

CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Lacon

Tags: Charles Caleb Colton


Truth travels slowly and gets weaker as it goes. Suitable lies are strong and run faster.

ARIANA FRANKLIN

Mistress of the Art of Death

Tags: Ariana Franklin


The truth is never dangerous. Except when told.

PHILIP MOELLER

Helena's Husband

Tags: Philip Moeller


The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple.

REBECCA WEST

The Meaning of Treason

Tags: Rebecca West


Truth is always new, therefore timeless. What was truth yesterday is not truth today, what Truth is truth today is not truth tomorrow: truth has no continuity. It is the mind which wants to make the experience which it calls truth continuous, and such a mind shall not know truth.

JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI

"What was true yesterday is not true today", The New Indian Express, March 2, 2017

Tags: Jiddu Krishnamurti


Truth is too precious a commodity to be wasted upon mere idolators.

HERNANDEZ CORTEZ

attributed, Day's Collacon


Truth is a pillar erected by God, and upholdeth the universe.

JAMES LINEN

"Desultorious Chronicles", The Poetical and Prose Writings of James Linen


Truth draws strength from itself and not from the number of votes in its favour.

POPE BENEDICT XVI

Address to the International Diplomats, March 18, 2006


Truth is the secret of eloquence and of virtue, the basis of moral authority; it is the highest summit of art and of life.

HENRI-FREDERIC AMIEL

Journal Intime

Tags: Henri-Frederic Amiel


Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

"University Education", Fact and Fiction

Tags: Bertrand Russell


It's strange how the human mind swings back and forth, from one extreme to another. Does truth lie at some point of the pendulum's swing, at a point where it never rests, not in the dull perpendicular mean where it dangles in the end like a windless flag, but at an angle, nearer one extreme than another? If only a miracle could stop the pendulum at an angle of sixty degrees, one would believe the truth was there.

GRAHAM GREENE

The End of the Affair

Tags: Graham Greene


The cold passion for truth hunts in no pack.

ROBINSON JEFFERS

"Be Angry at the Sun"

Tags: Robinson Jeffers


Some that will hold a creed unto martyrdom will not hold the truth against a sneering laugh.

AUSTIN O'MALLEY

Keystones of Thought


Spurn not at seeming error, but dig below its surface for the truth;
And beware of seeming truths that grow on the roots of error.

MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER

Proverbial Philosophy

Tags: Martin Farquhar Tupper


A half-truth does more mischief than a whole lie.

IVAN PANIN

Thoughts


I tried to put a bird in a cage.
O fool that I am!
For the bird was Truth.
Sing merrily, Truth: I tried to put
Truth in a cage!

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

The Fool's Song

Tags: William Carlos Williams


If the feeble mind of man did not presume to resist the clear evidence of truth, but yielded its infirmity to wholesome doctrines, as to a health-giving medicine, until it obtained from God, by its faith and piety, the grace needed to heal it, they who have just ideas, and express them in suitable language, would need to use no long discourse to refute the errors of empty conjecture. But this mental infirmity is now more prevalent and hurtful than ever, to such an extent that even after the truth has been as fully demonstrated as man can prove it to man, they hold for the very truth their own unreasonable fancies, either on account of their great blindness, which prevents them from seeing what is plainly set before them, or on account of their opinionative obstinacy, which prevents them from acknowledging the force of what they do see.

ST. AUGUSTINE

The City of God

Tags: St. Augustine


But suppose it was truth double strong, it were no truth to me if I couldna take it in. I daresay there's truth in yon Latin book on your shelves; but it's gibberish and no truth to me, unless I know the meaning o' the words.

ELIZABETH GASKELL

North and South

Tags: Elizabeth Gaskell


Every dogma embodies some shade of truth to give it seeming currency.

AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT

Table Talk

Tags: Amos Bronson Alcott