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Truth

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“And the parson made it his text that week, and he said likewise, That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies, That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright, But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) first seen 1864 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Grandmother", st. 8 (1864)
“That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies; That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright; But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.”
Alfred Tennyson (active around 1809) bartlett, Public domain source
“It is the glistening and softly spoken lie; the amiable fallacy; the patriotic lie of the historian, the provident lie of the politician, the zealous lie of the partisan, the merciful lie of the friend, and the careless lie of each man to himself, that cast that black mystery over humanity, through which we thank any man who pierces, as we would thank one who dug a well in a desert.”
John Ruskin (1819–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He lies to you?" Attolia asked. "Constantly," said Eddis. "He lies to himself. If Eugenides talked in his sleep, he'd lie then, too." Attolia looked stunned. "And you can't tell?" Eddis thought for a moment. "I sometimes believe his lies are truth, but I have never mistaken his truth for a lie. If he needs me to believe him, he has his own way of showing his veracity.”
Megan Whalen Turner (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I lie awake at night to wait 'til you come in. You stay a little while and then you're gone again. Every question that I ask, I get a lie, lie, lie. For every lie you tell, you're gonna cry, cry, cry!”
Johnny Cash (1932–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies. If he only shows in his work that he has searched, and re-searched, for the way to put over lies, he would never accomplish anything.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The war in the Ukraine is an absurdity, based upon a lie. If we swallow that lie, the lie will eat us. The lie is terrified of the truth.”
Sting (musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Grow your tree of falsehood from a small grain of truth. Do not follow those who lie in contempt of reality.Let your lie be even more logical than the truth itself, So the weary travelers may find repose in the lie.”
Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Child of Europe" (1946), trans. Jan Darowski
“You should be proud of your profession because there's less lying in journalism than in any other profession. They lie in education, they lie in politics, they lie in banking, they lie in labor; there's liars all over the place. Sports? Full of liars. And there are liars in journalism, but if there are liars, journalism will out them.”
Gay Talese (born 1932) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In an interview with David L. Ulin to - Gay Talese talks with David L. Ulin (October 15, 2010)
“[ Fuzzy logic is ] a logic whose distinguishing features are (i) fuzzy truth-values expressed in linguistic terms, e.g., true, very true, more or less true, or somewhat true, false, nor very true and not very false, etc2.; (2) imprecise truth tables; and (3) rules of inference whose validity is relative to a context rather than exact.”
Lotfi A. Zadeh (1921–2017) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Zadeh (1975) "Fuzzy logic and approximate reasoning". Synthese 30: p. 407
“In order for us to maintain our way of living, we must, in a broad sense, tell lies to each other, and especially to ourselves. It is not necessary that the lies be particularly believable. The lies act as barriers to truth. These barriers to truth are necessary because without them many deplorable acts would become impossibilities.”
Derrick Jensen (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Israeli and Zionist claims continue by saying that Israel made the desert bloom. As if Palestine was a desert and they made the desert bloom [...] These are lies. They continue to lie, like Goebbels, and they continue to lie until people believe their lies.”
Mahmoud Abbas (born 1935) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Comments at a United Nations event in New York City (15 May 20-23) commemorating the Nakba (the 1948 Palestinian exodus), as cited in "'An affront to Holocaust victims': Deborah Lipstadt slams Mahmoud Abbas for likening…
“Maybe he was lying,” Peters said. “Lie is a blow to the tyranny of fact,” Hollis said…. “I think lies are good,” he said. “People should lie more. Lies are like these little peepholes into a better world.”
Lev Grossman (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was not the one to invent lies: they were created in a society divided by class and each of us inherited lies when we were born. It is not by refusing to lie that we will abolish lies: it is by eradicating class by any means necessary.”
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One day it was lies, lies, lies, real old-school Saigon-style lies about how everything's fine...and then wham, we take Mazar-i-Sharif and it's a toboggan ride to Kabul.”
John Dolan (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The American press is all about lies! All they tell is lies, lies and more lies!”
Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf (born 1940) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in A Gigantic Mistake (2004) by Mickey Z, p. 171
“The paper was shipped up from the USA, and full of lies; since the demise of the Rosenfeld Register (which had been only half full of lies), no local paper had been permitted. But even lies could be interesting if they were new lies: why else did people read so many books and magazines?”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here lies the noble warrior that never blunted sword; Here lies the noble courtier that never kept his word; Here lies his excellency that governed all the state; Here lies the L. of Leicester that all the world did hate.”
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (1532–1588) said by 1588 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sir Walter Raleigh, "Epitaph on the Earl of Leicester"; John Hannah, ed., Poems by Sir Walter Raleigh (1892), XXIII. Fragments and Epigrams
“Truth has noble effects. Truth is the seed of the new birth. God does not regenerate us by miracles or revelations, but by the word of truth (James 1:18). As truth is the breeder of grace, so it is the feeder of it (1Ti 4:6). Truth sanctifies: "Sanctify them through Thy truth" (John 17:17).”
Thomas Watson (Puritan) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The things that are most important to me in such a project are perfectionism and truth. Truth of interpretation, truth of sound, truth of the instrument, truth of the hall, truth lastly of all. This means ‘Artistic Integrity’ to me.”
Burkard Schliessmann (born 2000) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully.”
Graham Greene (1904–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Love that is truly altruistic seeks no reward and is based on true faith directed towards God. The true practice of altruistic love lies in not seeking anything in return. Yokoshi kamikumite have been given the art of True Light, through which we are able to give the Light of God. This is truly a wonderful gift from God. The foundation of altruistic love lies in giving Light.”
Keishu Okada (1929–2016) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: January 2000. Quoted in Chang (2007), p. 94.
“If we did not believe that truth is universal, why should so many missionaries endure these hardships? It is precisely because truth is common to all countries and all times that we call it truth. If a true doctrine were not true alike in Portugal and Japan we could not call it 'true'.”
Shūsaku Endō (1923–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Reason is poor propaganda when opposed by the yammering, unceasing lies of shrewd and evil and self-serving men. The little man has no way to judge and the shoddy lies are packaged more attractively. There is no way to offer color to a colorblind man, nor is there any way for us to give the man of imperfect brain the canny skill to distinguish a lie from a truth.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The need for truth is not constant; no more than is the need for repose. An idea which is a distortion may have a greater intellectual thrust than the truth; it may better serve the needs of the spirit, which vary. The truth is balance, but the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.”
Susan Sontag (1933–2004) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Review of Selected Essays by Simone Weil, The New York Review of Books (1 February 1963)
“True love, true love. It must be true love. Nothing else can break my heart like True love, true love. It must be true love. No one else can break my heart like you.”
Pink (singer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh, there's got to be true love, true love True love just to make it Oh, there's got to be true love, true love True love just to take it.”
Ric Ocasek (1944–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When hope lies dead—ah, when 'tis death to live, And wrongs remembered make the heart still bleed, Better are Sleep's kind lies for Life's blind need Than truth, if lies a little peace can give.”
Theodore Watts-Dunton (1832–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If there is a punishment for telling the truth, then many people will tell lies. If telling lies is incentivized, then many people will tell lies. And if you allow mobs of people online or off to intimidate people and don’t stand up to them, then many people will be intimidated. And they will change what they say accordingly.”
Douglas Murray (born 1979) first seen 2025 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Coward Malcolm Gladwell admits he lied about trans athletes — and reveals an important truth about our modern culture," September 4, 2025
“What is the nature of the border between truth and lies? It is permeable and blurred because it is planted thick with rumour, confabulation, misunderstandings and twisted tales. Truth can break the gates down, truth can howl in the street; unless truth is pleasing, personable and easy to like, she is condemned to stay whimpering at the back door.”
Hilary Mantel (1952–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is my truth and your truth, but the truth lies in the middle. To approach it, each person must detach themselves a little from their own truth to take a step towards the other.”
Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1899–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Italo Calvino said the artist reveals that bit of truth hidden at the bottom of every lie. Art is all about the art of lying. The artist’s imperative is to create a supreme fiction, a lie that, paradoxically, discloses a truth. It's precisely this kind of paradox that Calvino and Fellini adored.”
Damian Pettigrew (born 1953) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On truth and lies, in O Estado de São Paolo (November, 2003)
“You should always tell the truth, she thought, not because one lie leads to another, but rather because one lie could so easily lead you to that terrifying position from which, with just the help of a random dream, you can see, both back and ahead, the morass where truth and falsity are simply, for you, indistinguishable.”
Samuel R. Delany (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everything I write is autobiographical, but none of it is true in the sense of a court of law—you know, a lie is just a lie. The truth, on the other hand, is complicated.”
Jamaica Kincaid (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Twilight] argues that true love will triumph in the end, which may or may not be true, but if it's a lie, it's the most beautiful lie we have.”
John Green (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Any representation of a god is ultimately a lie, Silk explained. It may be a convenient lie, and it may even be a reverent one; but it's ultimately false. ... Neither image would be more nearly true than the other, or more true than any other—merely more appropriate.”
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the lie of truth lies the truth.”
Dejan Stojanovic (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These demagogic non sequiturs undercut conservative claims to value the truth. And that has policy consequences: the supposedly conservative Pence and company have been pushing the lie for a week now that the free market is a failure and case-by-case economic fascism from above is the solution to lost American jobs. When truth doesn't matter, lies about policy are sure to follow.”
Ben Shapiro (born 1984) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Is Truth Becoming Irrelevant to Conservatives?, (December 5, 2016)
“But that kind has not a true word in him. I wouldn’t be surprised if everything he said were a lie. Such as he lies as he breathes. Truth is something he’s never even learned to speak.”
Samuel R. Delany (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.”
Eric Hoffer (1902–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But the true power of this country does not lie in its military, government, or corporations. It lies with individual people struggling every day to better their communities. We must build a trickle-up media that reflects the true character of this country and its people. A democratic media serving a democratic society.”
Amy Goodman (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is as much an error to take truth for lies, as lies for truth.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[The masses] … must turn their hopes toward a miracle. In the depths of their despair reason cannot be believed, truth must be false, and lies must be truth. "Higher bread prices," "lower bread prices," "unchanged bread prices" have all failed. The only hope lies in a kind of bread price which is none of these, which nobody has ever seen before, and which belies the evidence of one's reason.”
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lies are as important as truth, for without lies, the truth is worthless.”
Ben Elton (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you are going to lie, you go to jail for the lie rather than the crime. So believe me, don't ever lie.”
Richard Nixon (1913–1994) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To John Dean in April 1973. Dean was due to testify before the Senate Watergate Committee, which he did on June 25, 1973.
“All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street And the lie of Authority Whose buildings grope the sky: There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: September 1, 1939", ll. 78–88
“There is only one form of government that cannot produce good writers, and that system is Fascism. For Fascism is a lie told by bullies. A writer who will not lie cannot live or work under Fascism. Because Fascism is a lie, it is condemned to literary sterility. And when it is past, it will have no history, except the bloody history of murder.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address, American Writers Congress, New York City (1937). Reprinted in New Masses (June 22, 1937)
“In the years that have gone by there’s been the constant claim that we went to war based on a lie... There was no lie. There were errors in intelligence, but there was no lie.”
John Howard (born 1939) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the 2003 Iraq War
“I’m wide awake, I’ll drop you off for saying that, For days and two weeks, It was you who was defending such a lie, Oh what a lie, Was it a lie? ~ "Sense”
Pete Yorn (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am the girl you know, can't look you in the eye I am the girl you know so sick I cannot try I am the one you want, can't look you in the eye I am the girl you know, I lie and lie and lie”
Courtney Love (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source