Truth

In battling evil, excess is good for he who is moderate in announcing the truth is presenting half-truth.

‘But the Emperor has nothing on at all!’ cried a little child.

But, my dearest Agathon, it is truth which you cannot contradict; you can without any difficulty contradict Socrates.

A belief is not true because it is useful.

My temptation is quiet. Here at life’s end Neither loose imagination, Nor the mill of the mind Consuming its rag and bone, Can make the truth known.

All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

Of life's two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a labourer’s hand.

Witness at all times. If necessary, use words. St.

When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people.

Truth-loving Persians do not dwell upon

If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.

You should not honor men more than truth.

But what is the good of friendship if one cannot say exactly what one means? Anybody can say charming things and try to please and to flatter, but a true friend always says unpleasant things, and does not mind giving pain. Indeed, if he is a really true friend he prefers it, for he knows that then he is doing good.

The best ammunition against lies is the truth, there is no ammunition against gossip. It is like a fog and the clear wind blows it away and the sun burns it off.

Nazi theory indeed specifically denies that such a thing as “the truth” exists. . . . The implied objective of this line of thought is a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past . If the Leader says of such and such an event, “It never happened”—well, it never happened. If he says that two and two are five—well, two and two are five. This prospect frightens me much more than bombs.

The greater part of the truth is always hidden, in regions out of the reach of cynicism.

For to bear all naked truths, And to envisage circumstance, all calm, That is the top of sovereignty.

Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway,

They said, ‘You have a blue guitar,

Those who know that they are profound strive for clarity. Those who would like to seem profound to the crowd strive for obscurity. For the crowd believes that if it cannot see to the bottom of something it must be profound. It is so timid and dislikes going into the water.

I think a man's duty is to find out where the truth is, or if he cannot, at least to take the best possible human doctrine and the hardest to disprove, and to ride on this like a raft over the waters of life.

How much truth can a spirit bear, how much truth can a spirit dare? ... that became for me more and more the real measure of value.

The public . . . demands certainties. . . . But there are no certainties.

The virulence of the national appetite for bogus revelation.