Truth

Don’t confuse majority opinion with truth.

Most people care less about the truth than to be strengthened in their views. – Willem Cornelis Capel

To find the truth, you have to turn your back on the multitude. – Fontenelle

Bismarck has said of the journalists that most are people who have missed their calling. The truth is even worse: they are mostly people who have not missed their calling. – Ernst Hohenemser

The truth is, I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let men sometimes fool themselves. – Marilyn Monroe

A white lie is always forgivable. But whoever tells the truth without necessity does not deserve indulgence. – Karl Kraus

A lie is often just an anachronism, a belated anticipation of the truth. – Robert Sabatier

No harvest of truth ripens from seeds of lies. – A.S.C. Wallis

A big lie is often easier to pronounce than a small truth. – Peter Sirius

A good liar usually speaks the truth. – Jean de Boisson

The truth always rises and grows in the struggle with the lie. – Mao Tse Tung

And, after all, what is a lie? ‘T is but the truth in masquerade. – Lord George Byron

The truth is never going to rebuke the lie; her sincerity alone is the most severe rebuke. – Henry David Thoreau

Man would rather live within a comfortable lie, then in an uncomfortable truth.

And who says that only the truth is real? The lie is as alive as the truth, if not more alive. – Ivan Turgenew

Anytime you stir up the past and deal with civil rights a lot of people say ‘Oh, well that’s a done deal, it’s over with,’ and that couldn’t be furthest from the truth. – Jeff Woodard

Historical truth is made of the silence of the dead. – Etienne Rey

Oh, Truth, forget me! – Fernando Pessoa

Wrapping the truth in dark words. – Virgil

Truth is like a magic ball that changes color every three seconds. – Arnon Grunberg

It is impossible to argue with someone who claims not to seek the truth, but already knows it. – Romain Rolland

The truth has no special time. Her time is always right when it seems most outdated. – Albert Schweitzer

The truth has no agenda. – George S. Patton Jr.

Full we drink the flattering lie, and drop by drop we swallow the bitter truth. – Denis Diderot

In many ways I reached my truth: I did not climb the same ladder to a height where my gaze was directed into my distance. – Friedrich Nietzsche

There are truths which one can only say after having won the right to say them. – Jean Cocteau

Truth disappears with the telling of it. – Lawrence Durrell

There are few nudities so objectionable as the naked truth. – Agnes Repplier

Truth sits upon the lips of dying men. – Matthew Arnold

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon. **Meaning:** Often the truth is told on the deathbed.

I guess sometimes you have to lie to find the truth. – Scott Westerfeld

Truth, when not sought after, rarely comes to light. – Oliver Wendell Holmes

The truth is rarely pure, and never simple. – Oscar Wilde

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. – Isocrates

War does not determine who is right – only who is left. – Bertrand Russell

Myths which are believed in tend to become true. – George Orwell

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author. – Gilbert Keith Chesterton

All high truth is the union of two contradictories. – Frederick W. Robertson

Very few people really care about freedom, about liberty, about the truth, very few. Very few people have guts, the kind of guts on which a real democracy has to depend. Without people with that sort of guts a free society dies or cannot be born. – Doris Lessing

Truth is always exciting. Speak it then. Life is dull without it. – Pearl S. Buck

Everyone probably thinks that I’m a raving nymphomaniac, that I have an insatiable sexual appetite, when the truth is I’d rather read a book. – Madonna

No, we don’t need more sleep. It’s our souls that are tired, not our bodies. We need nature. We need Magic. We need adventure. We need freedom. We need truth. We need stillness. We don’t need more sleep, we need to wake up and live. – Brooke Hampton