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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“Early rising, honesty, and work. There is a great difference in merit between being awakened and waking up someone else. Working in the shadows and praising others is honesty. If you do not put into practice what you hear, you will become a lie. Work on top of work, saying to yourself, ‘Just a little more, just a little bit more’; this is not greed, it is work that comes from true sincerity.”
Nakayama Miki (1798–1887) said by 1887 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Scientists lie, especially if the result reinforces what they want to be true. Contemporary scientists strongly trend in a certain ideological direction, and so there’s a blizzard of false results pointing in that direction. The replication crisis produces correlated noise.”
Gregory Cochran (born 1953) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 17 April 2017
“Yet, as ever, he will sound considerably tougher on crime than on its causes because that is where his true feelings lie. The toughness comes easy but the underlying social justice theme comes but once a year at party conference.”
Polly Toynbee (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She wrote very selectively of the Peponi she remembered, emphasizing those aspects that she found praiseworthy and ignoring the less savory events of her life. As Hardwycke had put it during one of our conversations, every line of the book was true, but the book itself was one big lie.”
Mike Resnick (1942–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our true acquisitions lie only in our charities. We gain only as we give.”
William Gilmore Simms (1806–1870) said by 1870 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Ireland of to-day feels acutely that the springs of her greatness lie in the past, and that by restoring ancestral traditions, blending them naturally with existing social forms, and by drawing strength and dignity from the memories of pre-Christian and medieval Ireland, before the Anglo-Norman had deformed and strangled her, she may yet discover her true self, and start life afresh.”
Ernesto Buonaiuti (1881–1946) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Impressions of Ireland (1913)
“Toni Morrison said, "The past is infinite." And it's true, especially if you are a writer of color. It is infinite, because so much of it that's been written in both fiction and nonfiction is a lie. It's almost like it behooves you to take that as your subject.”
Michelle Cliff (1946–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Something experienced is true; the same thing believed is a lie.”
Werner Erhard (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sociologists and historians have avoided looking for the family sources of wars and social violence. Whenever a group produces murderers, the early parental relationship must have been abusive and neglectful. Yet this elementary truth has not even begun to be considered in historical research; just stating that poor mothering lies behind wars seems blasphemous.”
Lloyd deMause (1931–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What the virtues are to existential perfection, truths are to intellectual perfection; virtue is essentially simplicity, inward beauty, generosity, whereas truth, for its part, lies entirely in the discernment between the Real and the illusory or between the Absolute and the contingent.”
Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The English are polite by telling lies. The Americans are polite by telling the truth.”
Malcolm Bradbury (1932–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've always believed the lies we use to make our fictions reveal the truth with far more honesty than any history or herstory or life story.”
Charles de Lint (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The truth lies somewhere between these two aesthetics [static Cubism and dynamic Futurism]. The 'pure form' of w:Ingres led inevitably to a life-less Platonism; the lyricism and Romanticism of Eugène Delacroix no longer tailed with our cerebral and geometric age.. ..as in all great ages, today's artwork must be the synthesis of these two things [quote, 1917].”
Gino Severini (1883–1966) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Preface' of the exhibition catalogue, Photo Secession Gallery, New York, March 1917
“A thirsty ambition for truth and virtue, and a frenzy to conquer all lies and vices which are not recognized as such nor desire to be; herein consists the heroic spirit of the philosopher.”
Johann Georg Hamann (1730–1788) said by 1788 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Socratic Memorabilia, J. Flaherty, trans. (Baltimore: 1967), p. 147.
“Froude informs the Scottish youth That parsons do not care for truth. The Reverend Canon Kingsley cries History is a pack of lies. What cause for judgements so malign? A brief reflexion solves the mystery – Froude believes Kingsley a divine, And Kingsley goes to Froude for History.”
William Stubbs (1825–1901) first seen 1825 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to John Richard Green (17 December 1871), quoted in Letters of William Stubbs, Bishop of Oxford, 1825–1901, ed. William Holden Hutton (1904), p. 162
“O, let us understand that the power of Christianity lies not in a hazy indefiniteness, not in shadowy forms, not so much even in definite truths and doctrines, but in the truth and the doctrine. There is but one Christ crucified. All the gathered might of the infinite God is in that word.”
Herrick Johnson (1832–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For the man whose religion claims to spread truth, priest, your lies are strikingly vulgar.”
Brandon Sanderson (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anyone who cares about truth should avoid not politics, but Olympic lies.”
“Wilem tapped Simmon’s shoulder. “He’s telling the truth.” Simmon glanced over at him. “Why do you say that?” “He sounds more sincere than that when he lies.”
Patrick Rothfuss (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If wars can be started with lies, they can be stopped by truth.”
Julian Assange (born 1971) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Fate Of Anti-War Journalism Lies in Upcoming Assange Hearings, Sam Carliner, (22 October 2021)
“We may talk of the best means of doing good; but, after all, the greatest difficulty lies in doing it in a proper spirit. Speak- the truth in love, "in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves" — with the meekness and gentleness of Christ.”
Asahel Nettleton (1783–1844) said by 1844 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 129.
“I have said to you to speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to tell lies is much worse.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'In war-time,' I said, 'truth is so precious she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.'”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Discussion of Operation Overlord with Stalin at the Teheran Conference (November 30, 1943); in The Second World War, Volume V : Closing the Ring (1952), Chapter 21 (Teheran: The Crux), p. 338
“I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Campaign statement in Fresno, California (10 September 1952); earlier incidence of similar comments exist:
“The word is clear only to the kind who on peak or plain, from dark northern ice-fields to the hot wet jungles, through all wine and want, through lies and unfamiliar truth, dark or light, are governed by the unknown gods, and though each man knows the law, no man may give tongue to it.”
Stephen Crane (1871–1900) first seen 1899 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Clan of No Name" (1899); published in the anthology Wounds in the Rain (1900)
“So blind is the curiosity by which mortals are possessed, that they often conduct their minds along unexplored routes, having no reason to hope for success, but merely being willing to risk the experiment of finding whether the truth they seek lies there.”
René Descartes (1596–1650) said by 1650 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But our great security lies, I think, in our growing strength, both in numbers and wealth; ... unless, by a neglect of military discipline, we should lose all martial spirit ...; for there is much truth in the Italian saying, Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you.”
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) first seen 1773 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Thomas Cushing (1773)
“We must speak the truth about terror. Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th; malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty. To inflame ethnic hatred is to advance the cause of terror.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks by the President to United Nations General Assembly (November 10, 2001)
“If we want to know where the truth lies in particular cases, we have to look. What the Darwinian corpus gives us is not detailed expectations about particular organisms. It gives us something subtler and more valuable: understanding of principle. But if we must have myths, the real facts about vampires could tell a different moral tale.”
Richard Dawkins (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He said it was her fault. She said it wasn't at all. But the truth lies somewhere in the middle.”
“Everything that makes diversity of kinds, of species, differences, properties... everything that consists in generation, decay, alteration and change is not an entity, but a condition and circumstance of entity and being, which is one, infinite, immobile, subject, matter, life, death, truth, lies, good and evil.”
Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) said by 1600 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A truth that's told with bad intent Beats all the lies you can invent.”
William Blake (1757–1827) said by 1827 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since I wasn’t able to leave a succession of beautiful lies, I want to leave the smidgen of truth that the falsehood of everything lets us suppose we can tell.”
Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Conquer anger with love, evil with good, meanness with generosity, and lies with truth.”
Gautama Buddha (501–501 BC) said by 501 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[[Happiness|[H]appiness]] of the scientist lies not in possessing the truth, but in discovering...”
Max Planck (1858–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As palace mirror'd in the stream, as vapour mingled with the skies, So weaves the brain of mortal man the tangled web of Truth and Lies.”
Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) said by 1890 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am a proud progressive Democrat, someone who believes affordable, quality health care is an economic necessity and a moral imperative. As a longtime Democratic political strategist, I am skeptical, at best, of the Washington elite's worship of bipartisanship -- as if the truth always lies halfway between Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore”
Paul Begala (born 1961) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Health-Care Goal for Progressives: Progress Not Perfection" (August 13, 2009)
“The chance is high that the truth lies in the fashionable direction. But, on the off-chance that it is in another direction — a direction obvious from an unfashionable view of field theory — who will find it? Only someone who has sacrificed himself by teaching himself quantum electrodynamics from a peculiar and unfashionable point of view; one that he may have to invent for himself.”
Richard Feynman (1918–1988) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics," Nobel Lecture (11 December 1965)
“It's as easy to utter lies as truth.”
Agatha Christie (1890–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I complain about the United States not being Athens. I certainly say we are a very good Roman republic, and the lies are based upon the most advanced techniques of advertising, which is the only art form my country has ever created — the television commercial — and we sell soap and presidents in the same fashion. Once a country is habituated to liars, it takes generations to bring the truth back.”
Gore Vidal (1925–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every religion lies. Every moral precept is a delusion. Even the stars are a mirage. The truth is darkness, and the only thing that matters is making a statement before one enters it. Cutting the skin of the world and leaving a scar. That's all history is, after all: scar tissue.”
Stephen King (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They tell me that truth lies somewhere at the bottom of a well, and at virtually the door of our home is a most notable if long dried well. Our location is thus quite favorable, if we but keep patience.”
James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everybody thinks they want to see the truth,” said Tenkswa-Tawa. “That’s one of the lies we tell ourselves.”
Orson Scott Card (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He who lies artistically, treads closer to the truth than ever he knows.”
Fritz Leiber (1910–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In truth we gaze but do not see, and hearken but do not hear; we eat and drink but do not taste. And there lies the difference between Jesus of Nazareth and ourselves. His senses were all continually made new, and the world to Him was always a new world.”
Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All I wrote about us is lies All I wrote about us is the truth”
Nâzım Hikmet (1901–1963) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From About Us (30 September 1960)
“And differing judgments serve but to declare, That truth lies somewhere, if we knew but where.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hope", l. 423 (1782)
“I could have given him false consolation then, I suppose. I could have lied, and said that what he had seen was a fever dream, a fantasy, that Athilan would endure forever and a day. But I’m not much good at lying. And I knew that he wasn’t looking for lies from me, or consolations, or anything else that might make him feel good for a moment at the expense of the truth.”
Robert Silverberg (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you will refrain from telling any lies about the Republican Party, I'lll promise not to tell the truth about the Democrats.”
Chauncey Depew (1834–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "If Elected I Promise … " Stories and Gems of Wisdom by and About Politicians (1969) by John F. Parker
“The gang serves lies, the passionate Man plays his part; the cold passion for truth Hunts in no pack.”
Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Be Angry At The Sun" (1941)