truth - quotes

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, 1956-

is a spiritual and humanitarian leader

Truth cannot be understood through proof. Anything that can be proven can be disproven also. Truth is beyond proof or disproof.

H(enry) L(ouis) Mencken, 1880-1956

was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.

(Christopher) Ashton Kutcher, 1978-

is an American film actor, television actor and producer

Sometimes truth that is unpopular is called lies.

Samuel Goldwyn, 1879-1974

was an US (Polish-born) movie producer

I don't want any “yes-men” around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs.

Niels (Henrik David) Bohr, 1885-1962

was a Danish physicist

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

George Santayana, 1863-1952

was an US (Spanish-born) philosopher

The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who have loved it.

( “Little Essays”, p 107, 1920 )

Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862

was an US Transcendentalist author

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), 1835-1910

was an US humorist, novelist, short story author, and wit

The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.

( "Advice to Youth, 1882 )

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 1841-1935

was an American jurist

Pretty much all the honest truth-telling there is in the world is done by children.

Oscar (Fingall O'Flahertie Wills) Wilde, 1854-1900

was an Irish dramatist, novelist, and poet

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

(Marcus Tullius) Cicero, 106 BC-43 BC

was a Roman author, orator, and politician

By doubting we come at truth.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

was an US essayist and poet

The peril of every fine faculty is the delight of playing with it for pride. Talent is commonly developed at the expense of character, and the greater it grows, the more is the mischief. Talent is mistaken for genius, a dogma or system for truth, ambition for greatest, ingenuity for poetry, sensuality for art.

Elbert (Green) Hubbard, 1856-1915

was an US author

Live truth instead of professing it.

Cato the Elder (Marcus Porcius Cato), 234 BC-149 BC

was a Roman statesman

Anger so clouds the mind, that it cannot perceive the truth.

Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662

was a French mathematician, physicist

Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.