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Truth
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“In truth, men speak too much of danger. Let others be terrified by the natural and healthy risks of life! We shall not be frightened! Poison sumac grows in a hard-working man's field, the serpent hisses from its hidden den, and the owl's eye shines in the belfry, but the sun goes on lighting the sky, and truth continues marching across the earth unscathed.”
José Martí (1853–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm planning, you see, to try to confine myself to the truth. That's hard for an old, inveterate fantasy martyr and [illegible] liar who has never hesitated to give truth the form he felt the occasion demanded.”
Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Prediction of the fall of Russian communism: "Russia enveloped with communism—a new religious freedom must come. God will overrule it, for that people must hear the truth, and truth in simplicity. Truly there is much for the church to do in the coming century.”
David O. McKay (1873–1970) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: At Brigham Young University, reported in Church News, May 28, 1960.
“The creation of a legal eligibility allowing the grant of an amnesty for treason is abhorrent and unacceptable. The Bill was supposed to be a search for the truth behind the tragedy of 2000, but the Bill never once mentions the word "truth".”
Graeme Leung first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 16 June 2005 parliamentary submission
“Reality is, after all, too big for our frail understanding to fully comprehend. Nevertheless, we have to build our life on the theory which contains the maximum truth. We cannot sit still because we cannot, or do not , know the Absolute Truth.”
Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in An Indian pilgrim: an unfinished autobiography (1997) by himself, Sisir Kumar Bose, and Sugata Bose, p. 124
“They called me, inviting me to watch L'Infedele. I'm watching a disgusting program, run in a despicable, vile and repulsive way. I've heard false and distorted views, far away from the truth. I've seen a representation of reality which is to the contrary of truth.”
Silvio Berlusconi (1936–2023) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the TV program L'infedele, called in during the show, reported in "Berlusconi insults Lerner live: you run a brothel program", Repubblica (25 January 2011)]
“One thing being a scientist has taught me is that you can never be certain about anything. You never know the truth. You can only approach it and hope you get a bit nearer to it each time. You iterate towards the truth. You don't know it.”
James Lovelock (1919–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I had always claimed to welcome the truth; yet now, in common with most of us, I was resentful of the truth because it called upon me to take an unwelcome course of action.”
Michael Moorcock (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps he's just a vehicle To bear us to the hills of Truth That's Truth spelled with a great big T And peddled in the mystic's booth There are oh so many miracles That the western sky exposes Why go looking for lilacs When you're lying in a bed of roses?”
“Unless one always speaks the truth, one cannot find God Who is the soul of truth. (531)”
Ramakrishna (1836–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The truth of the matter is — and I'm always a bit reluctant to say this because people think you're a bit unfeeling. The truth of this, on 9/11, people who — myself and others — were so unbelievably focused on what was happening that we were, for many, many hours, I think, spared the agony of loss.”
Peter Jennings (1938–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Canst thou see God as the bodiless Infinite and yet love Him as a man loves his mistress? Then has the highest truth of the Infinite been revealed to thee. Canst thou also clothe the Infinite in one secret embraceable body and see Him seated in each and all of these bodies that are visible and sensible? Then has its widest and profoundest truth come also into thy possession.”
Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So poisonousAre the ravishments of truth, so fatal to The truth itself, the first idea becomes The hermit in a poet’s metaphors,Who comes and goes and comes and goes all day.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The operation of the imagination in life is more significant than its operation in or in relation to works of art... in life what is important is the truth as it is, while in arts and letters what is important is truth as we see it.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By dint of declaration the so-called Cinema Verité is devoid of verité. It reaches a merely superficial truth, the truth of accountants.”
Werner Herzog (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cinema Verité confounds fact and truth, and thus plows only stones. And yet, facts sometimes have a strange and bizarre power that makes their inherent truth seem unbelievable.”
Werner Herzog (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization.”
Werner Herzog (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Truth is the Truth.”
Max Weber (1864–1920) first seen 1890 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Max Weber's last words (1920), as quoted in Prophets of Yesterday : Studies in European Culture, 1890-1914 (1961) by Gerhard Masur, p. 201
“Let the truth be told from young souls that become old From days spent in the jungle, where must one go To find it, time is real, we can't rewind it Out of everybody I met, who told the truth? Time did”
Common (rapper) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Truth", Pharoahe Monch Internal Affairs (1999)
“If a person is to get the meaning of life he must learn to like the facts about himself — ugly as they may seem to his sentimental vanity — before he can learn the truth behind the facts. And the truth is never ugly.”
Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: New York Herald Tribune (9 September 1956)
“When citizens testify before grand juries they are required to tell the truth. Without the truth, our criminal justice system cannot serve our nation or its citizens.”
Patrick Fitzgerald (born 1960) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: CIA probe 'not over' after Cheney's top aide indicted on CNN.com (October 28, 2005)
“Know that all the sophistications in the knowledge are mostly mistakes that should fall before the truth. Yet, the truth itself is simple, without any wit.”
Yehuda Ashlag (1880–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The writer must take the right to explore, warts and all, both the enemy and the beloved comrade in arms, since only a try for the truth makes sense of being, only a try for the truth edges towards justice just ahead of Yeats's beast slouching to be born.”
Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The truth can only be pieced together from these different bits of knowledge, these different impressions, these different experiences. Goethe said: “You close your eyes and you dip your hand into your society and you bring up a little bit of the truth.” And that is the material of your writing.”
Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is never vulgarity in a whole truth, however commonplace. It may be unimportant or painful. It cannot be vulgar. Vulgarity is only in concealment of truth, or in affectation.”
John Ruskin (1819–1900) first seen 1856 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Volume III, part IV, chapter VII (1856)
“Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." In order for you yourself to become the way, the truth, and the life, you must embrace the whole universe and bring harmony to it.”
Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: For Whom Are We Living, (1957-04-07)
“For the trouble with lying and deceiving is that their efficiency depends entirely upon a clear notion of the truth that the liar and deceiver wishes to hide. In this sense, truth, even if it does not prevail in public, possesses an ineradicable primacy over all falsehoods.”
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That is why a criminal trial is not a search for truth. Scientists search for truth. Philosophers search for morality. A criminal trial searches for only one result: proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Alan Dershowitz (born 1938) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: published 2011-07-07
“The defendant wants to hide the truth because he's generally guilty. The defense attorney's job is to make sure the jury does not arrive at that truth.”
Alan Dershowitz (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The prosecution is perfectly happy to have the truth of guilt come out but it, too, has a truth to hide: it wants to make sure the process by which the evidence was obtained is not truthfully presented, because, as often as not, that process will raise questions.”
Alan Dershowitz (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science has no enemies save those who consider truth as useless and making no difference, and those who granting to truth its priceless value profess to get at it by other roads than those of criticism and rational investigation.”
Ernest Renan (1823–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The perception of truth is an actual act which changes things; it’s not merely that it is the truth about something which is different.”
David Bohm (1917–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Truth is harder to bear than ignorance, and so ignorance is valued more—also because the status quo depends on it; but love depends on self-knowledge and self-knowledge depends on being able to bear the truth.”
Andrea Dworkin (1946–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The main instinct a lot of the time is to masquerade and hide the truth at all times. Whereas in reality what happens in songs is laying bare the truth. So a lot of time it's fighting that instinct, and the songs become almost confessional. They can also be quite condescending to myself, almost like I'm putting myself down.”
Pete Doherty (born 1979) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If Benton had had an administration building with pillars it could have carved over the pillars: Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you guilty.”
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He said truth has a taste, and this had the taste of truth. A wolf would put it that way, but I agree it does. Some things just don’t hang together, but others do. And a lot of times when you encounter it, you say, “I don’t want this to be right, but it probably is, even though it brings me to grief.”
Alice Borchardt (1939–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The truth is whatever you can get away with." "No, that’s journalism. The truth is whatever you can’t escape.”
“[Atheism] believes that truth for truth's sake is the highest ideal and that virtue is its own reward.”
Joseph Lewis (1889–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I mean, we may not want to demonize anybody who has made money. The truth of the matter is, you all, you all know, you all know in your gut what has to be done. We can disagree in the margins but the truth of the matter is it’s all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one's standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change.”
“The discovery of truth by slow progressive meditation is wisdom. Intuition of truth, not preceded by perceptible meditation, is genius.”
Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) said by 1801 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He thought about that for a moment, wondered what he should say. The truth or nothing. The truth.”
Octavia Butler (1947–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The human soul has need of truth and of freedom of expression. The need for truth requires that intellectual culture should be universally accessible, and that it should be able to be acquired in an environment neither physically remote nor psychologically alien.”
Simone Weil (1909–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Truth is sought not because it is truth but because it is good.”
Simone Weil (1909–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The God of Peace, the God of Truth will shortly seal this truth, and confirm this witness, and make it evident to the whole world, that the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience, is most evidently and lamentably contrary to the doctrine of Christ Jesus the Prince of Peace. Amen.”
Roger Williams (theologian) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Truth in all its kinds is most difficult to win; and truth in medicine is the most difficult of all.”
Peter Mere Latham (1789–1875) said by 1875 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is no easy task to pick one's way from truth to truth through besetting errors.”
Peter Mere Latham (1789–1875) said by 1875 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To Sylvan truth was truth and all else was black heresy, though on occasion he had the very human difficulty of deciding which was which.”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no sin inherent in any mind save the sin of pride in believing one has seen or been taught the absolute truth. The second greatest sin is refusing to search for the truth one must acknowledge one will never absolutely find.”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But truth is not spoken in anger. Truth is spoken, if it ever comes to be spoken, in love.”
J. M. Coetzee (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Truth is one forever, absolute; but opinion is truth filtered through the moods, the blood, the disposition, of the spectator.”
Wendell Phillips (1811–1884) first seen 1859 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fraternity lecture delivered in Boston (4 October 1859), in Speeches, Letters and Lectures by Wendell Phillips (1884), p. 245