Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Truth
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“The roots of struggle lie in the necessary truth that contradictions propel society forward.”
Jiang Shigong (born 1967) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Philosophy and History" (2018)
“Chumps prefer a beautiful lie to an ugly truth.”
Iceberg Slim (1918–1992) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Trick Baby: The Biography of a Con Man (1967)
“It’s always better to tell a half-truth than a half-lie.”
Ben Aaronovitch (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.”
Jenna Ellis (born 1984) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: First attributed to Roosevelt on the internet in recent years, there is no evidence he ever said this, as noted in "Teddy Roosevelt on Conservatives vs. Liberals", by Dan Evon at snopes.com (3 June 2016) and at Teddy Ro…
Also quoted by: Theodore Roosevelt (misattributed)
“The more a lie contains truth, the more it is evil.”
Hossein Nuri (born 1954) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Manner of Infatuation (2000) by Hossein Nuri, p. 203
“The most dangerous force may not be the lie — but the sustained systematic suggestion that the truth itself is unreachable.”
Eliot Higgins (born 1979) first seen 2026 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a post on Bluesky, as cited in "Timeline: How the Trump administration lost the narrative in Minnesota", The Washington Post (28 January 2026)
“A lie has seven winding paths, the truth one straight road.”
Beverley Naidoo (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A young poet suddenly falls silent for fear of telling the truth. An old poet falls silent for fear the best in a poem is its lie.”
Leah Goldberg (1911–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: poem collected in The Remains of Life (1978). Translated from Hebrew by Rachel Tzvia Back and included in Lea Goldberg: Selected Poetry and Drama (2005)
“I told him that Mustafa Sa'eed was a lie. 'Do you want to know the truth about Mustafa Sa'eed?' I said to him with another drunken laugh.”
Tayeb Salih (1929–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People demand honesty, which is in the moment, but the truth is, we need to be at peace. And we need to reconcile to ourselves. So sometimes, the lie is better. Makes us more peaceful.”
Lee Maracle (1950–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even when they call your truth a lie, tell it anyway! Tell it anyway!”
Katie Cannon (1950–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As a child I had no doubts; but now? Take, for instance, telling the truth. I was brought up to believe that one should do that, and I knew a lie a mile off. But now I see that mendacity, or at any rate the suppression of one's real feelings and opinions, is the cement that binds society together.”
E. V. Lucas (1868–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was no truth, no integrity. It was a lie—totally untrue”
Didymus Mutasa (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How the press, for example, loves to brag to its victims—its readers—about its freedom. Yes, the press may be free to lie and distort and suppress and deceive and malign, but is it free to tell the truth?”
Willis Carto (1926–2015) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction to Imperium (1963), p. xv
“We all know that a lie needs no other grounds than the invention of the liar; and to take for granted as truth all that is alleged against the fame of others is a species of credulity that men would blush at on any other subject.”
Jane Porter (1776–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.”
Albert Camus (disputed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A lie can be halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on.”
James Callaghan (misattributed) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Though widely quoted from his speech in the House of Commons, (1 November 1976) published in Hansard, House of Commons, 5th series, vol. 918, col. 976.; this is actually a very old paraphrase of a statement of the 19th …
“Go, Soul, the body's guest, Upon a thankless arrant: Fear not to touch the best, The truth shall be thy warrant: Go, since I needs must die, And give the world the lie.”
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) said by 1618 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Like one Who having into truth, by telling of it, Made such a sinner of his memory, To credit his own lie.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“And after all, what is a lie? 'T is but The truth in masquerade.”
Lord Byron (1788–1824) said by 1824 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“You believe in freedom of speech for communists because what they say is true. You do not believe in freedom of speech for fascists because what they say is a lie.”
John Howard Lawson (1894–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Between Margaret's fine-edged art and Gladys's rough simplicity, where did the greater feminine solace lie? True art, after all, is simple.”
Angus Wilson (1913–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For true evangelical faith...cannot lie dormant; but manifests itself in all righteousness and works of love; it...clothes the naked; feeds the hungry; consoles the afflicted; shelters the miserable; aids and consoles all the oppressed; returns good for evil; serves those that injure it; prays for those that persecute it.”
Menno Simons (1496–1561) first seen 1539 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Why I Do Not Cease Teaching and Writing, 1539
“I'm gonna be a happy idiot And struggle for the legal tender. Where the ads take aim and lay their claim To the heart and the soul of the spender. And believe in whatever may lie In those things that money can buy, Though true love could have been a contender.”
Jackson Browne (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Choices after waking up: To be true or to lie? To take action or be brainwashed? To be free or be jailed?”
Ai Weiwei (born 1957) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ai Weiwei Twitter feed: @AiWW (8:50 a.m. September 5, 2009)
“I refuse for this to be true. Some things even I can't survive. I utter my first words since my sister's death. "I don't believe you." Snow shakes his head in mock disappointment. "Oh, my dear Miss Everdeen. I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other.”
Suzanne Collins (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet! Nothing comes to thee new or strange. Sleep full of rest from head to feet; Lie still, dry dust, secure of change.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) first seen 1832 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To J. S., stanza 19, from Poems (1832)
Also quoted by: Alfred Tennyson
“'Tis true, 'tis day; what though it be? O wilt thou therefore rise from me? Why should we rise, because 'tis light? Did we lie down, because 'twas night? Love which in spite of darkness brought us hither Should in despite of light keep us together.”
John Donne (1572–1631) said by 1631 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dare to be true. Nothing can need a lie: A fault, which needs it most, grows two thereby.”
George Herbert (1593–1633) said by 1633 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Reason is Life's sole arbiter, the magic Laby'rinth's single clue: Worlds lie above, beyond its ken; what crosses it can ne'er be true.”
Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) said by 1890 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is the key of modern science and is the beginning of the true understanding of nature. This idea. That to look at the things, to record the details, and to hope that in the information thus obtained, may lie a clue to one or another of a possible theoretical interpretation.”
Richard Feynman (1918–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A true prayer and religious reconciling of ourselves to Almighty God cannot enter into an impure soul, subject at the very time to the dominion of Satan. He who calls God to his assistance whilst in a course of vice, does as if a cut-purse should call a magistrate to help him, or like those who introduce the name of God to the attestation of a lie.”
Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) said by 1592 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ch. 56 (tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877)
“The man who assumes everything is a lie is at least as mistaken as the one who assumes everything is true. If no guarantee can suit you, perhaps the flaw is not in the guarantee, but in you.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It has been my personal experience that the true flavour, the real fun, the continuous excitement of work lie in the process of doing it rather than in having it over and done with.”
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (1931–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is a dream a lie if it don't come true Or is it something worse?”
Bruce Springsteen (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is true love? Its essence does not lie in receiving but in being the first to give, in living for the sake of others and the sake of the larger whole.”
Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Reason, it is true, is DICTATOR in the Society of Mankind; from her there ought to lie no Appeal; But here we want a Pope in our Philosophy, to be the infallible Judge of what is or is not Reason.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) first seen 1710 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Essay upon Publick Credit (1710).
“Ex-cons always say, "You never know what makes the wheels go round until you’ve done time in the joint." This is even more true of psychiatric hospitals. It is a perfect mass hypostatization of society, the organization of the Social Lie.”
Kenneth Rexroth (1905–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When true hearts lie wither'd And fond ones are flown, Oh, who would inhabit This bleak world alone?”
Thomas Moore (1779–1852) said by 1852 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Following World War II, the Jews... The Zionists tried to present themselves as oppressed, and to have opportunities in the world. They invented a false claim. They said that Hitler, the Germans, and the Austrians burned six million Jews in crematoria - six million Jews. They tried very hard to convince the world that this issue, this lie, was true, and they succeeded.”
Ali Meshkini (1922–2007) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ayatollah Meshkini in Friday Sermon at Qom: The Holocaust Is a Lie December 2005.
“On the second Michael Jackson trial, speaking on "Larry King Live," CNN, Feb. 21, 2003: "But I'm telling you, this boy, two-thirds of this can be corroborated by other people. So why would he lie about the molestation part? It is in graphic detail. It just seems true... I think Michael Jackson walks. And I think it's a disgrace. He's guilty.”
Nancy Grace (born 1959) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Larry King Live", CNN (Feb. 21, 2003), reported in "Jacko Not Guilty: Past Predictions", TVNewser.com (June 14, 2006).
“By the winding stream we shall lie and dream We'll make dreams come true if we want them to Yes all will come play the pipes and drum Sing a happy song and we'll sing along.”
Van Morrison (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I lied. And my embarrassment was so great that I changed everything else to make the lie true.”
James Richardson (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you desire, then, to embrace this life of solitude, and to seek out the blessings of stillness? If so, abandon the cares of the world, and the principalities and powers that lie behind them: free yourself from attachment to material things, from domination by passions and desires, so that as a stranger to all this you may attain true stillness.”
Evagrius Ponticus (345–399) said by 399 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You might say that,” Flynn said, thus avoiding an outright lie, since anyone might say anything whether it was true or not.”
Robert Sheckley (1928–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most effective lie is ninety-nine percent true.”
Robert Ferrigno (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can’t tell you if the stories are true. Men lie without meaning to. They talk as if they had been part of a thing that happened to someone they never knew and only heard of by sixth remove.”
Leigh Brackett (1915–1978) said by 1978 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For malice will with joy the lie receive, Report, and what it wishes true, believe.”
Thomas Yalden (1670–1736) said by 1736 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The thing that you know to be true is the lie that will kill you.”