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Truth

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• “The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won't get much sleep.”

  Woody Allen (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “In actions of enthusiasm, this drawback appears: but in those lower activities, which have no higher aim than to make us more comfortable and more cowardly, in actions of cunning, actions that steal and lie, actions that divorce the speculative from the practical faculty, and put a ban on reason and sentiment, there is nothing else but drawback and negation.”

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “He was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.”

  Mark Twain (1835–1910) first seen 1867 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Brief Biographical Sketch of George Washington", The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches (1867), ed. John Paul

• “The silent colossal National Lie that is the support and confederate of all the tyrannies and shams and inequalities and unfairnesses that afflict the peoples — that is the one to throw bricks and sermons at.”

  Mark Twain (1835–1910) first seen 1900 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: My First Lie, and How I Got Out of It", in The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays (1900)

• “Here while I lie beneath this walnut bough, What care I for the Greeks or for Troy town, If juster battles are enacted now Between the ants upon this hummock's crown?”

  Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1842 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Summer Rain", st. 3. The Dial (October 1842) p. 224

• “In the Catholic Church, especially, they go into chancery, make a clean confession, give up all, and think to start again. Thus men will lie on their backs, talking about the fall of man, and never make an effort to get up.”

  Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) said by 1862 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Real greatness has nothing to do with a man's sphere. It does not lie in the magnitude of his outward agency, in the extent of the effects which he produces. The greatest men may do comparatively little.”

  William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) said by 1842 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The fact that the Vatican is concluding a treaty with the new Germany means the acknowledgement of the National Socialist state by the Catholic Church. This treaty shows the whole world clearly and unequivocally that the assertion that National Socialism is hostile to religion is a lie.”

  Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to the Nazi Party, 22 July 1933; John Cornwell (2008). Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII. New York: Penguin, p. 118.

• “The lie goes forth again that Germany to-morrow or the other day will fall upon Austria or Czecho-Slovakia.”

  Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in Berlin (1 May 1936), quoted in The Times (26 September 1939), p. 10

• “You will never learn what I am thinking. And those who boast most loudly that they know my thought, to such people I lie even more.”

  Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Statement to Franz Halder, as quoted in (1993) by Robert George Leeson Waite, p. xi

• “Understand then all of you, especially the young, that to want to impose an imaginary state of government on others by violence is not only a vulgar superstition, but even a criminal work. Understand that this work, far from assuring the well-being of humanity is only a lie, a more or less unconscious hypocrisy, camouflaging the lowest passions we possess.”

  Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Passage written for for The Law of Love and the Law of Violence (1908), released in 1917, as quoted in Equality in Liberty and Justice (2001) by Antony Flew, p. 89

• “One is ashamed to say how little is needed for all men to be delivered from those calamities which now oppress them; it is only needful not to lie.”

  Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Unwind my riddle. Cruel as hawks the hours fly; Wounded men seldom come home to die; The hard waves see an arm flung high; Scorn hits strong because of a lie; Yet there exists a mystic tie. Unwind my riddle.”

  Stephen Crane (1871–1900) first seen 1899 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Epigraph of "The Clan of No Name" (1899); published in the anthology Wounds in the Rain (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co, 1900) p. 42

• “I saw a man pursuing the horizon; Round and round they sped. I was disturbed at this; I accosted the man. "It is futile," I said, "You can never—""You lie," he cried, And ran on.”

  Stephen Crane (1871–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment, Little souls who thirst for fight, These men were born to drill and die. The unexplained glory flies above them, Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom — A field where a thousand corpses lie.”

  Stephen Crane (1871–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Swift blazing flag of the regiment, Eagle with crest of red and gold, These men were born to drill and die. Point for them the virtue of slaughter, Make plain to them the excellence of killing And a field where a thousand corpses lie.”

  Stephen Crane (1871–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The age-old faith of lovers and poets in the power of love, stronger than death, that Finis vitae sed non amoris [Life ends but not love], is a lie, useless and not even funny.”

  Stanisław Lem (1921–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “You can shine your shoes and wear a suitYou can comb your hair and look quite cute...You can go to church and sing a hymnYou can judge me by the color of my skinYou can live a lie until you dieOne thing you can't hideIs when you're crippled inside”

  John Lennon (1940–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If the courts have the final say-so on all legislative acts, and if no appeal can lie from them to the people, then they are the irresponsible masters of the people. In other words, those who take this position hold that the people have enough intelligence to frame and adopt a constitution but not intelligence to apply and interpret the constitution which they have themselves made.”

  Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Acts of injustice done Between the setting and the rising sun In history lie like bones, each one.”

  W. H. Auden (1907–1973) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Ascent of F6 (1936) act II, sc. 5

• “Out on the lawn I lie in bed, Vega conspicuous overhead.”

  W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Lay your sleeping head, my love Human on my faithless arm; Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave Proves the child ephemeral; But in my arms till break of day Let the living creature lie: Mortal, guilty, but to me The entirely beautiful.”

  W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Earth, receive an honoured guest; William Yeats is laid to rest. Let the Irish vessel lie Emptied of its poetry.”

  W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “In the nightmare of the dark All the dogs of Europe bark, And the living nations wait, Each sequestered in its hate;Intellectual disgrace Stares from every human face, And the seas of pity lie Locked and frozen in each eye.”

  W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The problem whether or not a good end justifies bad means seems to arise out of such cases as whether one should lie to a sick man in order to set his mind at rest; or whether one should keep a people in ignorance in order to make them happy; or whether one should begin a long and bloody civil war in order to establish a world of peace and beauty.”

  Karl Popper (1902–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The secret story is the one we'll never know, although we're living it from day to day, thinking we're alive, thinking we've got it all under control and the stuff we overlook doesn't matter. But every single damn thing matters! Only we don't realize. We just tell ourselves that art runs on one track and life, our lives, on another, and we don't realize that's a lie.”

  Roberto Bolaño (1953–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “[N]o matter how outrageous a lie may be, it will be accepted if stated loudly enough and often enough.”

  Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Near East (1968), p. 31

• “To apply oneself to great inventions, starting from the smallest beginnings, is no task for ordinary minds; to divine that wonderful arts lie hid behind trivial and childish things is a conception for superhuman talents.”

  Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) said by 1642 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “And that was how Dodger and Simplicity got into Parliament, indeed with the cutthroat razor—and with a lie, which was fine, considering that’s how so many people got into Parliament.”

  Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Drink and dance and laugh and lie, Love, the reeling midnight through, For tomorrow we shall die! (But, alas, we never do.)”

  Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Flaw in Paganism" in Death and Taxes (1931)

• “I am convinced that the moment is coming when, with its message of eternal, universal values, it will come to the aid of our society. For in these words: "Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," lie those very moral principles that will enable us to survive even the most critical situations.”

  Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Dickens had all his life the faults of the little boy who is kept up too late at night. The boy in such a case exhibits a psychological paradox; he is a little too irritable because he is a little too happy. Dickens was always a little too irritable because he was a little too happy. Lie the over-wrought child in society, he was splendidly sociable, and yet suddenly quarrelsome.”

  G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Dropt tears have hastened your decay And brought you one step nigher death; And you have heard, unthrilled, unmoved, The music of Love's golden breath And seen the light in eyes that loved. You think you hold the core and kernel Of all the world beneath your crust, Old dial? But when you lie in dust, This vine will bloom, strong, green, and proved. Love is eternal.”

  Eleanor Farjeon (1881–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “But we grow old. Ah! when shall all men's good Be each man's rule, and universal Peace Lie like a shaft of light across the land, And like a lane of beams athwart the sea, Thro' all the circle of the golden year?”

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) first seen 1842 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Golden Year", st. 3 (1842)

• “Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind, In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind.”

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “On either side the river lie Long fields of barley and of rye, That clothe the wold and meet the sky; And through the field the road runs by To many-towered Camelot.”

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If I'm a beggar born," she said "I will speak out, for I dare not lie, Pull off, pull off the brooch of gold, And fling the diamond necklace by.""Nay now, my child," said Alice the nurse, "But keep the secret all you can." She said, "Not so; but I will know If there be any faith in man".”

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “What matters it, that, all around, Danger, and guilt, and darkness lie, If but within our bosom's bound We hold a bright, untroubled sky, Warm with ten thousand mingled rays Of suns that know no winter days?”

  Emily Brontë (1818–1848) said by 1848 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I lay too many Eggs in the hot Sands of this Wilderness, the World! with Ostrich Carelessness & Ostrich Oblivion. The greater part, I trust, are trod underfoot, & smashed; but yet no small number crawl forth into Life, some to furnish Feathers for the Caps of others, & still more to plume the Shafts in the Quivers of my Enemies, of them that lie in wait against my Soul.”

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) first seen 1802 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Notebooks, September/early October 1802

• “Yet now despair itself is mild, Even as the winds and waters are; I could lie down like a tired child, And weep away the life of care Which I have borne and yet must bear, Till death like sleep might steal on me, And I might feel in the warm air My cheek grow cold, and hear the sea Breathe o'er my dying brain its last monotony.”

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) first seen 1818 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Stanzas Written in Dejection Near Naples (1818), st. 5

• “I'm not smart enough to lie.”

  Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Response when asked what qualified him to be President, as quoted in Ronald Reagan : The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency (2003) by Peter J. Wallison, p. 167

• “Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie.”

  Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Thus let me live, unseen, unknown; Thus unlamented let me die; Steal from the world, and not a stone Tell where I lie.”

  Alexander Pope (1688–1744) first seen 1700 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Ode on Solitude" (c. 1700), st. 5

• “He who tells a lie, is not sensible how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.”

  Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “O suffering, sad humanity! O ye afflicted ones, who lie Steeped to the lips in misery, Longing, yet afraid to die, Patient, though sorely tried!”

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Also quoted by: Henry W. Longfellow

• “How my soul hates This language, Which makes life itself a lie, Flattering dust with eternity.”

  Lord Byron (1788–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Earth has not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty: This City now doth, like a garment, wear The beauty of the morning; silent, bare, Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie Open unto the fields and to the sky; All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.”

  William Wordsworth (1770–1850) first seen 1802 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802, l. 1 (wr. 1802; pub. 1807)

• “Pleasures newly found are sweet When they lie about our feet.”

  William Wordsworth (1770–1850) first seen 1803 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: To the Small Celandine ("Pleasures Newly Found are Sweet"), st. 1 (wr. 1803; pub. 1807)

• “Love had he found in huts where poor men lie; His daily teachers had been woods and rills, The silence that is in the starry sky, The sleep that is among the lonely hills.”

  William Wordsworth (1770–1850) first seen 1807 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle, l. 161 (1807)

• “To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.”

  William Wordsworth (1770–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

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