Quotes to inspire and reflect

They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth.

O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil!

All truths that are kept silent become poisonous.

The inability to lie is far from the love of truth.

A man’s word / Is believed just to the extent of the wealth in his coffers stored.

On the one hand, we may tell the truth, regardless of consequences, and on the other hand we may mellow it and sophisticate it to make it humane and tolerable.

To be wiser than other men is to be honester than they; and strength of mind is only courage to see and speak the truth.

He that does not speak truth to me does not believe me when I speak truth.

All truth is not to be told at all times.

Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.

The highest compact we can make with our fellow is, “Let there be truth between us two for evermore.”

We perceive an image of truth, and possess only a lie.

What kind of truth is it which has these mountains as its boundary and is a lie beyond them?

Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think.

Lies are the religion of slaves and bosses. Truth is the god of the free man.

If a man fasten his attention on a single aspect of truth and apply himself to that alone for a long time, the truth becomes distorted and not itself but falsehood.

Though truth and falsehood be / Near twins, yet truth a little elder is.

Would that I could discover truth as easily as I can uncover falsehood.

It is only a good, sound, truthful person, who can lie to any good purpose; if a man is not habitually truthful his very lies will be false to him and betray him.

Every thing to be true must become a religion.

Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.

For what is Truth? In matters of religion, it is simply the opinion that has survived. In matters of science, it is the ultimate sensation. In matters of art, it is one’s last mood.

There are certain truths so true that they are practically unbelievable.

Heaven knows what seeming nonsense may not tomorrow be demonstrated truth.

Knowledge for the sake of knowledge! Truth for truth’s sake! This is inhuman.

So little trouble do men take in the search after truth; so readily do they accept whatever comes first to hand.

Between whom there is hearty truth there is love.

Truth looks tawdry when she is overdressed.

The truth is always the strongest argument.

Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It’s the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn’t make any difference so long as it is honored.

Truth’s open to everyone, and the claims aren’t all staked yet.

Deep truth is imageless.

The truth, my friends, is not eloquent, except unspoken; its vast shadow lends eloquence to our sparks of thought as they die into it.

Even under the most favourable circumstances no mortal can be asked to seize the truth in its wholeness or at its centre.

Truth is not that which is demonstrable but that which is ineluctable.

Truths may clash without contradicting each other.

Truth is no road to fortune.

No truth is proved, no truth achieved, by argument, and the ready-made truths men offer you are mere conveniences or drugs to make you sleep.

We have an idea of truth, invincible to all scepticism.

The greater amount of truth is impulsively uttered; thus the greater amount is spoken, not written.

There would be too great darkness, if truth had not visible signs.

There are many kind of eyes. Even the Sphinx has eyes—therefore there must be many lands of “truths,” and consequently there can be no truth.

There is an innate decorum in man, and it is not fair to thrust Truth upon people when they don’t expect it. Only the very generous are ready for Truth impromptu.

The will to truth is merely the longing for a stable world.

The real advantage which truth has, consists in this, that when an opinion is true, it may be extinguished once, twice, or many times, but in the course of ages there will generally be found persons to rediscover it.

The truth of these days is not that which really is, but what every man persuades another man to believe.

The smallest atom of truth represents some man’s bitter toil and agony; for every ponderable chuck of it there is a brave truth-seeker’s grave upon some lonely ash-dump and a soul roasting in hell.

To be mistaken is a misfortune to be pitied; but to know the truth and not to conform one’s actions to it is a crime which Heaven and Earth condemn.