Others

No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.

Manipulations of opinion, insofar as they are inspired by well-defined interests, have limited goals; their effect, however, if they happen to touch upon an issue of authentic concern, is no longer subject to their control and may easily produce consequences they never foresaw or intended.

Every communist has a fascist frown, every fascist a communist smile.

One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.

God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please—you can never have both.

Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth, to see it like it is and to tell it like it is, to find the truth, to speak the truth and live with the truth. That’s what we’ll do.

And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’

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

The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always surfaces above lies, as oil floats on water.

The ability to discriminate between that which is true and that which is false is one of the last attainments of the human mind.

He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.

He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.

If decade after decade the truth cannot be told, each person’s mind begins to roam irretrievably. One’s fellow countrymen become harder to understand than Martians.

Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!

It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.

Talking much about oneself may be a way of hiding oneself.

Everything that deceives may be said to enchant.

Everything that deceives may be said to enchant.

Truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues, and lies have always been regarded as justifiable tools in political dealings.

The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.

I think if the people of this country can be reached with the truth, their judgment will be in favor of the many, as against the privileged few.

Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.

No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.