TRUTH QUOTES XIX

quotations about truth

We can, in general, be much less sure of the truth of a thing, than of the falsehood; because though every part we have seen may agree, yet we cannot tell how many may be behind, and one failure of connection will be sufficient to falsify the whole.

FULKE GREVILLE

Maxims, Characters, and Reflections


Understand that the tongue can conceal the truth, but the eyes--never!

MIKHAIL BULGAKOV

The Master and Margarita

Tags: Mikhail Bulgakov


Truth is more deceptive than falsehood, for it is more frequently presented by those from whom we do not expect it, and so has against it a numerical presumption.

AMBROSE BIERCE

"Epigrams of a Cynic"


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


There's many a true word spoken in jest.

JAMES JOYCE

Ulysses

Tags: James Joyce


The truth has no need to be uttered to be made apparent, and ... one may perhaps gather it with more certainty, without waiting for words and without even taking any account of them, from countless outward signs, even from certain invisible phenomena, analogous in the sphere of human character to what atmospheric changes are in the physical world.

MARCEL PROUST

The Guermantes Way

Tags: Marcel Proust


The sublime delight of truthful speech to one who has the great gift of uttering it, will make itself felt even through the pangs of sorrow.

GEORGE ELIOT

Felix Holt


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


So multifarious are the different classes of truths, and so multitudinous the truths in each class, that it may be undoubtingly affirmed that no man has yet lived who could so much as name all the different classes and subdivisions of truths, and far less anyone who was acquainted with all the truths belonging to any one class. What wonderful extent, what amazing variety, what collective magnificence! And if such be the number of truths pertaining to this tiny ball of earth, how must it be in the incomprehensible immensity!

HORACE MANN

Thoughts


Serious misfortunes, originating in misrepresentation, frequently flow and spread before they can be dissipated by truth.

GEORGE WASHINGTON

letter to John Jay, May 8, 1796

Tags: George Washington


No point in ignoring the truth. Doesn't make it worse to have it said out loud.

STEPHENIE MEYER

The Host

Tags: Stephenie Meyer


Men never make truths; they only recognize the value of this currency of God. They find truths, as men sometimes find bills, in the street, and only recognize the value of that which other persons have drawn.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


Man is not permitted without censure to follow his own thoughts in the search of truth, when they lead him ever so little out of the common road.

JOHN LOCKE

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Tags: John Locke


I sometimes have these spells of compulsive truth. But as Lady Macbeth would say, "The fit is momentary."

KEN KESEY

Sometimes a Great Notion

Tags: Ken Kesey


I do not think that so much harm is done by giving error to a child, as by giving truth in a lifeless form.

WILLIAM E. CHANNING

Thoughts

Tags: William E. Channing


Education and time may improve and augment the uses of truth, but cannot alter the structure, which is ever the same--as proceeding from the Eternal.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims

Tags: Edward Counsel


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


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

IVAN PANIN

Thoughts


You cannot gather much truth by searching the fields; you must sink shafts.

AUSTIN O'MALLEY

Keystones of Thought

Tags: Austin O'Malley


Truth is within ourselves.

ROBERT BROWNING

Paracelsus