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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“Unlike those people climbing outside the building, they knew it was a lie. The true believers were out there attacking the building. But inside the chamber, my Republican colleagues know it is a big lie”
Adam Schiff (born 1960) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Schiff calls House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy an 'insurrectionist in a suit and tie'" (October 12, 2021)
“By adding three lies, one does not get the truth — only a bigger lie.”
Slobodan Milošević (1941–2006) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic (2002)
“He knew that sooner or later, in spite of all protecting charms and precautions, Death would creep silently on him or spring suddenly from some unguarded moment. This very night his horoscope might signal Death’s instant escapeless approach; and though men lived by lies, treating truth’s very self as lie to be exploited, the stars remained the stars.”
Fritz Leiber (1910–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It seemed, at least, that they had not taught the boy to lie. But they had not taught him to know truth from lies.”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You consider yourself an outsider, a seeker of truth amidst lies, yet you’ve bought into the biggest lie that can be told. You snort it through your nose and let it run in your bloodstream.”
Jonathan Lethem (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can’t deal with a man that lies. It turns me off instantly. I love truth and honesty. Once you begin to lie, I’m off.”
Ebube Nwagbo (born 1983) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Oladimeji, Ebube Nwagbo Reveals What Turns Her Off In A Man, 36ng, July 14, 2018.
“Whenever a man talks he lies, and so far as he talks to himself — that is to say, so far as he thinks, knowing that he thinks — he lies to himself. The only truth in human life is that which is physiological. Speech — this thing that they call a social product — was made for lying.”
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Niebla [Mist] (1914)
“The picture of the world that's presented to the public has only the remotest relation to reality. The truth of the matter is buried under edifice after edifice of lies upon lies.”
Noam Chomsky (born 1928) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He lies. How can you trust a man who lies? You cannot. And any man who comes on the wireless and says, ‘I am going to tell you the truth’—well, what else can he be except a liar?”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The difference between a novelist and a historian is this: that the former tells lies deliberately and for the fun of it; the historian tells lies in his simplicity and imagines he is telling the truth.”
Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The art of living is the art of knowing how to believe lies. The fearful thing about it is that, not knowing what truth may be, we can still recognize lies.”
Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The truth lied And lies divide Lies divide”
Leslie Feist (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One lies to seek a bit of relief from a ponderous, suffocating reality, but the liar, like the drinker, gradually comes to need larger and larger doses. The lies become blacker and more complex, and they mesh and rub together until in the end they shine with the luster of truth.”
Osamu Dazai (1909–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s very easy to speak truth from this podium when you have a president who is implementing policies that are wildly popular with the American people, and that’s exactly what this administration is doing. It’s correcting the lies and the wrongs of the past four years, many of the lies that have been told to your faces in this very briefing room. I will not do that.”
Karoline Leavitt (born 1997) first seen 2025 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press briefing by press secretary Karoline Leavitt" The White House (January 29, 2025)
“It is perilous to separate thinking rightly from acting rightly. He is already half false who speculates on truth and does not do it. Truth is given, not to be contemplated, but to be done. Life is an action — not a thought. And the penalty paid by him who speculates on truth, is that by degrees the very truth he holds becomes a falsehood.”
Frederick William Robertson (1816–1853) said by 1853 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our aim as scientists is objective truth; more truth, more interesting truth, more intelligible truth. We cannot reasonably aim at certainty. Once we realize that human knowledge is fallible, we realize also that we can never be completely certain that we have not made a mistake.”
Karl Popper (1902–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The trumpeters, ranging themselves side by side in order, blow one terrific blast: — 'THE TRUTH! at which Orlando woke. He stretched himself. He rose. He stood upright in complete nakedness before us, and while the trumpets pealed Truth! Truth! Truth! we have no choice left but confess — he was a woman.”
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But our Lord Christ has surnamed Himself Truth, not Custom. If Christ is always, and prior to all, equally truth is a thing sempiternal and ancient. Let those therefore look to themselves, to whom that is new which is intrinsically old. It is not so much novelty as truth which convicts heresies. Whatever savours of opposition to truth, this will be heresy, even (if it be an) ancient custom.”
Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Christ said, "The Truth shall make you free," but Truth is not found once and forever. Truth is eternal, and the quest for Truth must also be eternal.”
Max Heindel (1865–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is only a description of the facts. However, this is not the truth, since there will undoubtedly be other facts whose description will contradict this one. The truth is not in the juxtaposition of this type of writing. What opposes the truth is not another truth, but error. p. 89”
Alexander Zinoviev (1922–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The courtroom oath—to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth—is applicable only to witnesses... because the American justice system is built on a foundation of not telling the whole entire truth.”
Alan Dershowitz (born 1938) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Alan Dershowitz, The Best Defense (New York: Vintage), 1983-5-12, p. xiv.
“The passion for seeking the truth for truth's sake...can be kept alive only if we continue to seek the truth for truth's sake.”
Franz Boas (1858–1942) said by 1942 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What can we give a child when there is nothing left? All we have, I think, is the truth, the truth that will set him free, not limited, provable truth, but the open, growing, evolving truth that is not afraid.”
Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Psychoanalysis does not distort the truth by accident. It does so by necessity. It is an effective system for the suppression of the truth about childhood, a truth feared by our entire society. Not surprisingly, it enjoys great esteem among intellectuals... Fear of the truth about child abuse is a leitmotif of nearly all forms of therapy known to me.”
Alice Miller (psychologist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dogmatism as Nietzsche means it implies that one possesses the truth, or at least the most important or the most valuable truth. Yet the truth is elusive like that woman of whom he spoke at the very beginning. Elsewhere he says we are the first generation which no longer believes that it possesses the truth. That is what he means by the end of dogmatism.”
Leo Strauss (1899–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since there is no such thing as absolute rightness and truth, we always pursue the artificial, leading, human truth. We judge and make a truth that excludes other truths. Art plays a formative part in this manufacture of truth.”
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Notes, 1962; as cited on collected quotes on the website of Gerhard Richter: 'on Art'
“As a child I was taught that to tell the truth was often painful. As an adult I have learned that not to tell the truth is more painful, and that the fear of telling the truth — whatever the truth may be — that fear is the most painful sensation of a moral life.”
June Jordan (1936–2002) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Life After Lebanon" (1984), later published in On Call : Political Essays (1985), and Some of Us Did Not Die : New and Selected Essays of June Jordan (2002)
“Concerning the truth at hand he (Socrates) was saying, yes, surely, it is a truth a reason or a truth of fact, but before I offer it I must discover whether it is a personal truth and a part of myself, for otherwise I must leave its enunciation to others.”
David L. Norton (1930–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“While the average well adjusted man can make the reality that is generally accepted as truth into his own truth, the creative searcher after truth seeks and finds his own truth which he then wants to make general.”
Otto Rank (1884–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“you cannot negotiate truth: truth is truth because it is truth. You can’t talk around it you know. Whether one sees it as a perversity or not I believe it is a perversity.”
Karen King-Aribisala wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For truth and death are similar in that they both require a great courage if one wishes to face them. And truth is like death in that it kills. When I killed I did it with truth not with a knife. That is why they are afraid and in a hurry to execute me. They do not fear my knife. It is my truth that frightens them.”
Nawal El Tatawy (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Creative thinking and art are not measurable since they're testimony of the truth and inherent in all that exists. And this truth, the only truth, has many faces. Who can count the faces of truth? All religion are ultimately the religion of mankind. Art is ritual.”
Susanne Wenger (1915–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She lies like the moon lies, a different face every night, all but one of them false, and the one true face as barren and hard as stone. Why do you believe her?”
Patricia A. McKillip (1948–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let the greatest part of the news thou hearest be the least part of what thou believest, lest the greater part of what thou believest be the least part of what is true. Where lies are easily admitted the father of lies will not easily be excluded.”
Francis Quarles (1592–1644) said by 1644 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wealth is not money. Wealth lies in men. This is where true power lies, the power we value. This is what has convinced us to direct all our resources to build the individual, and to use the wealth which God has provided us in the service of the nation.”
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1918–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When God’s power shines through us, it manifests as truth, auspiciousness and beauty. When God manifests through the intellect, truth shines forth. When God manifests through actions, it does so as goodness and auspiciousness. And when God manifests through the heart, beauty is the result. When truth, auspiciousness and beauty blend in our life, true strength awakens.”
Mata Amritanandamayi (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A good teacher knows that the best way to help students learn is to allow them to find the truth by themselves. Students don't learn by a mere transfer of knowledge, consumed through rote memorization and later regurgitated. True learning comes about through the discovery of truth, not through the imposition of an official truth.”
Noam Chomsky (born 1928) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chomsky on Miseducation, 1999, p. 21
“Genius gone clueless, it's a whole lot to risk Alcohol anonymous, who's the busiest loser? Heated by the rumors, read into it too much Fiendin' for some true love, asked Kim, 'What do you love?' Hard to find what the truth is, but the truth was that the truth suck Always seem to do stuff, but this time it was too much.”
Kanye West (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pragmatism, on the other hand, asks its usual question. "Grant an idea or belief to be true," it says, "what concrete difference will its being true make in anyone's actual life? How will the truth be realized? What experiences will be different from those which would obtain if the belief were false? What, in short, is the truth's cash-value in experiential terms?”
William James (1842–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I incline to the belief that in the light of eternity all our truths are shadows, and that the very truth we shall only know hereafter. Yet I think that every truth in its own place is a substance, though it may be a shadow in another place. And I think that all such shadows have value for our souls, for each is a true shadow, as the substance is a true substance.”
John Buchan (1875–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Experience to be experience must be reality; truth to be true must be true of reality. Experience, truth and reality are inseparable.”
Michael Oakeshott (1901–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Presumably those who profess and call themselves Christians believe their religion to be in some sense true; but in what sense? ... The truth of the Christian faith is the truth of a faith, or a way of life which shows itself true ... for those who live it.”
Donald M. MacKinnon (1913–1994) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Our Contemporary Christ," in Borderland Theology and Other Essays (1968), p. 82
“The Orthodox – Eastern Christians separated from Rome – are so called precisely because they emphasised the primacy of the true faith as a condition of the true Church. Otherwise, the Church ceases to be the pillar and foundation of truth. Consequently, those who do not defend the true faith fall from every ecclesiastical office, patriarchal, eparchial, etc.”
Nicola Bux (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science is not a social construct. Science’s truths were true before there were societies; will still be true after all philosophers are dead; were true before any philosophers were born; were true before there were any minds, even trilobite or dinosaur minds, to notice them.”
Richard Dawkins (born 1941) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (6 March 2021)
“The world is so unhappy because it is ignorant of the true Self. Man's real nature is happiness. Happiness is inborn in the true Self. Man's search for happiness is an unconscious search for his true Self. The true Self is imperishable; therefore, when a man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end.”
Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whether it be the new year or Eid, our true happiness will be when we raise the banner of the unity of God in every corner of the world, for which the Holy Prophet (sa) was commissioned in this world. Our true happiness will be when humanity begins to recognise true human values, and when hatred turns to love. May God soon grant us the means to this true happiness.”
Mirza Masroor Ahmad (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When life throws us obstacles and nothing seems fair at all impossible's possible 'cause you take us there Feelings ain't optional And these are our chronicles Impossible's possible And you take us there And true love isn't scared True love isn't scared True love isn't scared True love isn't scared”
Example (musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you tell the truth, you don't have to have a good memory. If you lie, you're always tripping over your own tie. ("If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything" - Mark Twain)”
Judith Sheindlin (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There were to be no short cuts to the truth. Instead he would have to adopt a longer, but a reasonably sure method. There would have to be conversation. Much conversation. For in the long run, either through a lie, or through truth, people were bound to give themselves away...”
Agatha Christie (1890–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Kids, the fiction is the truth inside the lie, and the truth of this fiction is simple enough: the magic exists.”
Stephen King (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source