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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“Matilda told such Dreadful Lies, It made one Gasp and Stretch one's Eyes; Her Aunt, who from her Earliest Youth, Had kept a Strict Regard for Truth, Attempted to Believe Matilda: The effort very nearly killed her.”
Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I welcome this opportunity of pricking the bloated bladder of lies with the poniard of truth.”
Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons, answering the Conservatives' amendment that criticised the government for the devaluation of the pound (29 September 1949)
“Truth is not always the best basis for happiness. There are certain lies which may constitute a far better and more secure foundation of happiness. There are people who perish when their eyes are opened.”
Wilhelm Stekel (1868–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You're my devil, you're my angel You're my heaven, you're my hell You're my now, you're my forever You're my freedom, you're my jail You're my lies, you're my truth You're my war, you're my truce You're my questions, you're my proof You're my stress and you're my masseuse Run from the lights, run from the night, run for your life.”
Kanye West (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We accustom ourselves and our children to hypocrisy, to the practice of a double-faced morality. And since the brain is ill at ease among lies, we cheat ourselves with sophistry. Hypocrisy and sophistry become the second nature of the civilized man. But a society cannot live thus; it must return to truth or cease to exist.”
Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921) said by 1921 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unethical conduct is actually the conduct of destruction and fear; lies are told because one is afraid of the consequences should one tell the truth; thus, the liar is inevitably a coward, the coward is inevitably a liar.”
L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They had learned how to listen for the sense of the meeting, not the voice of the loudest. They had learned that they must judge each time whether obedience was necessary and right, or misplaced and wrong. They had learned that the act of violence is the act of weakness, and that the spirit’s strength lies in holding fast to the truth.”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“we need a media that cuts through the lies and fakery that obscure the truth. A media that is fiercely independent. Unembedded. Journalism that works to inform, not to deceive. The soldiers and civilians in harm's way in Iraq deserve no less. The citizens of the devastated and abandoned Gulf Coast are counting on it. And the people shackled in America's secret gulags cry out for it.”
Amy Goodman (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Intellectuals may like to think of themselves as people who "speak truth to power" but too often they are people who speak lies to gain power.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Random Thoughts, Feb 25, 2004
“There are many degrees of Probable, some nearer Truth than others, in the determining of which lies the chief exercise of our Judgment.”
Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) said by 1695 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.”
Ron Paul (born 1935) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Revolution: A Manifesto, 2008
“American traditions and the American ethic require us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking as the Director of USIA, in testimony before a Congressional Committee (May 1963)
“You get your mucky fingers burnt / You get your truth from the lies you were learned Fed up with life in the city / Coz all the phonies have blown my mind It's all mine!”
Noel Gallagher (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I love you and, because I love you, I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies.”
Pietro Aretino (1492–1556) said by 1556 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If there's a locked door, I start to make up all kinds of stories about what might be behind it. I feel like it's some kind of secret, and it leads to me making up lies. But if all the doors are open, physically and metaphorically, there's only the one truth.”
Dave Eggers (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm the truth, across the table from corporate lies Immortilized by the realness I bring to it If revolution had a movie I'd be theme music My music, you can either fight, fuck, or dream to it”
Common (rapper) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lies run sprints but the truth runs marathons.”
Michael Jackson (1958–2009) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press statement (November 2003); quoted in "Michael Jackson Calls Child Molestation Charges 'Lies'" (8 December 2003) Jet
“(…) Is not meanness also a form of madness? And is not madness the misuse of the mind? Humanity’s problem lies in this misuse of the mind only. All the treasures of nature and spirit are open to man who will use his mind rightly. (…) Fear and greed cause the misuse of the mind. The right use of mind is in the service of love, of life, of truth, of beauty.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(...) A spark of truth can burn up a mountain of lies. (...)”
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“don't talk, I will listen don't talk, you keep your distance I'd rather hear some truth tonight than entertain your lies”
Natalie Merchant (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Aristotle was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it. Said he, "That when they speak truth they are not believed.”
Diogenes Laërtius wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Tertullian
“Democritus says, "But we know nothing really; for truth lies deep down.”
Diogenes Laërtius wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Tertullian
“How do the receptive perceive truth, whereas the unreceptive "seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand"? The ultimate truths of heaven and the kingdom of God, the reality that lies behind sensory perception and beyond the cogitations of the rationalizing mind, can only be grasped by intuition — awakening the intuitive knowing, the pure comprehension, of the soul.”
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everyone here would die for the sake of truth. Everyone here lies constantly for the tiniest chance of personal gain. This is what it means to be a scientist.”
“The Truth lies not in the Yes and not in the No, but in the knowledge and the beginning from which the Yes and the No arise.”
Karl Barth (1886–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense.”
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751) first seen 1716 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reflections upon Exile (1716)
“Whatever the intellectual is too certain of, if he is healthily playful, he begins to find unsatisfactory. The meaning of his intellectual life lies not in the possession of truth but in the quest for new uncertainties.”
Richard Hofstadter (1916–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The [Afghans] understand the difficult truth that their best hope of freedom lies in a temporary experience of imperial rule.”
Michael Ignatieff (born 1947) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nation Building Lite", New York Times Magazine (July 2002)
“I tell you, guilt dwells nowhere but in the eyes of the accuser. This men know even as they deny it, which is why they so often make murder their absolution. The truth of crime lies not with the victim but with the witness.”
R. Scott Bakker (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor, — all men know something of poverty; not that men are wicked, — who is good? not that men are ignorant, — what is Truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men.”
W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Man's inhumanity to man" is not the last word. The truth lies deeper. It is economic slavery, the savage struggle for a crumb, that has converted mankind into wolves and sheep.”
Alexander Berkman (1870–1936) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1912), Ch. 18: "The Solitary
“Drawing is but a means to an end. One imagines that drawing can be beautiful-it is not the lines which are beautiful, but what they signify, the sentiments which they translate. In reality, there is no such thing as beauty in drawing, or color beauty lies alone in revelation of truth.”
Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) said by 1917 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The bird of truth would not be able to fly if it weren't for the air of lies we breathe.”
Eugene J. Martin (1938–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was all very well, the alethiometer telling her to be truthful, but she knew what would happen if she told the whole truth. She had to tread carefully and just avoid direct lies.”
Philip Pullman (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Well, now is the time to peel back the foreskin of misconception and apply the wire brush of enlightenment to this mass of sticky half-truths and lies. The truth hurts, but not as much as the consequences of willful ignorance.”
Charles Stross (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Through all God's works there runs a beautiful harmony. The remotest truth in his universe is linked to that which lies nearest the throne.”
Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–1880) said by 1880 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was grounded while you filled the skies I was dumbfounded by truth you cut through lies I saw the lone empty valley you saw Brigadoon I saw the crescent You saw the whole of the moon”
Mike Scott (Scottish musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everything is in constant flux, from state to state, from good to bad and back again.. ..only in transmutation, perpetual motion, lies truth.”
Asger Jorn (1914–1973) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement in 1950 on reality as motion, as quoted in Asger Jorn (2002) by Arken Museum of Modern Art
“His purpose is therapeutic. A man at play with the freedoms of his mind, believing that it is allegiance to the truth and not the flag that rescues the citizens of a democracy from the prisons of their selfishness and greed, Twain aims to blow away with a blast of laughter the pestilent hospitality tents of a society making itself sick with its consumption of “sweet-smelling, sugar-coated lies.”
Lewis H. Lapham (1935–2024) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mark Twain's democratic ideal: How truth, laughter defeat "sweet-smelling, sugar-coated lies Salon, 1 November 2014
“Year-end financial statements … express a truth about office life which is no less irrefutable—yet also, in the end, no less irrelevant or irritating—than an evolutionary biologist’s proud reminder that the purpose of existence lies in the propagation of our genes.”
Alain de Botton (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When modern men and women insist that they feel completely free in their work, they are in a sense telling the truth, for the triumph of conformity lies in the crushing of all resistance, all experience of conflict.”
David Edwards (journalist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Death is the moment when you stop believing in lies and learn the greatest truth”
Siddharth Katragadda (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the essence of truth lies deceit. Deceit dispels the boredom of the Absolute.”
Dejan Stojanovic (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lies are easy to believe in but the truth sounds false.”
Carole Morin first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lampshades (1991)
“We expect you to debate everything. Question it all. Turn it upside down. They are your tools for investigating the universe. Don’t hide em away. Use them, all the time. The truth can always be questioned. Only lies die in the light.”
Malcolm Azania (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The repeated lies become history, but they don't necessarily become the truth.”
Colum McCann (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She didn’t know which she liked less, having people tell lies about her or having people know the truth.”
Tad Williams (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I paused and set down my glass, searching for the fine edge of deceit that always lies right up against the truth.”
Richard Morgan (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have not put our trust in Kings; let us not put it in natural resources, but grasp the truth that exhaustless wealth lies in the latent and as yet undeveloped capacities of individuals, of corporations, of States.”
Harrington Emerson (1853–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 164; ; Cited in: Morgen Witzel (2003) Fifty Key Figures in Management. p. 80
“We may not feel as confident as once we did that the way to truth lies all open before us the moment we have brought our vague questionings to a form that "leaves the rest to experiment.”
Edgar A. Singer Jr. (1873–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source