Be sure of the foundation of your life. Know why you live as you do. Be ready to give a reason for it. Do not, in such a matter as life, build an opinion or custom on what you guess is true. Make it a matter of certainty and science.
—Thomas Starr King (1824–64) American Clergyman, Orator
Accustom your children to a strict attention to truth, even in the most minute particulars. If a thing happened at one window, and they, when relating it, say that it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly cheek them; you do not know where deviations from truth will end.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Let your desire for truth transcend all minor considerations. Ignorance is invariably confident. The man of knowledge learns to realize his own needs. Be honest and severe in your self-appraisal. Learn the art of learning, and you are well on the way to achievement. True greatness is reflective, not assertive.
—Grenville Kleiser (1868–1935) Canadian Author
Time tries truth.
—Common Proverb
It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Truth is often eclipsed but never extinguished.
—Livy (Titus Livius) (59 BCE–17 CE) Roman Historian
The truth that is suppressed by friends is the readiest weapon of the enemy.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or who says it.
—Malcolm X (1925–65) American Civil Rights Leader
Truth is its own witness.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Truth is always consistent with itself, and needs nothing to help it out; it is always near at hand and sits upon our lips, and is ready to drop out before we are aware; whereas a lie is troublesome, and sets a man’s invention on the rack, and one trick needs a great many more of the same kind to make it good.
—John Tillotson
The more abstract the truth you want to teach, the more thoroughly you must seduce the senses to accept it.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
No bad man ever wished that his breast was made of glass, or that others could read his thoughts. But the misery is, that the duplicities, the temptations, and the infirmities that surround us, have rendered the truth, and nothing but the truth, as hazardous and contraband a commodity as a man can possibly deal in.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Our conscious motivations, ideas, and beliefs are a blend of false information, biases, irrational passions, rationalizations, prejudices, in which morsels of truth swim around and give the reassurance albeit false, that the whole mixture is real and true. The thinking processes attempt to organize this whole cesspool of illusions according to the laws of plausibility. This level of consciousness is supposed to reflect reality; it is the map we use for organizing our life.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
Hurry is a manifestation of fear; he who fears not has plenty of time. If you at with perfect faith in your own perceptions of truth, you will never be too late or too early; and nothing will go wrong.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
Learn to see things as they really are, not as we imagine they are.
—Vernon Howard (1918–92) American Author, Philosopher
We take our shape, it is true, within and against that cage of reality bequeathed us at our birth; and yet is precisely through our dependence on this reality that we are most endlessly betrayed.
—James Baldwin (1924–87) American Novelist, Social Critic
Truth sits upon the lips of dying men.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
It’s essential to tell the truth at all times. This will reduce life’s pain. Lying distorts reality. All forms of distorted thinking must be corrected.
—John Bradshaw (1933–2016) American Motivational Speaker
Perfect truth is possible only with knowledge, and in knowledge the whole essence of the thing operates on the soul and is joined essentially to it.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher, Theologian
In proportion as we perceive and embrace the truth do we become just, heroic, magnanimous, divine.
—William Lloyd Garrison (1805–79) American Journalist, Abolitionist
The deity is within you, not in ideas and books. Truth is lived, not taught.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of truth.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance.
—W. Clement Stone (1902–2002) American Self-help Guru, Entrepreneur
On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
We do not condemn the preachers as an individual but we condemn what they teach. We urge that the preachers teach the truth, to teach our people the one important guiding rule of conduct—unity of purpose.
—Malcolm X (1925–65) American Civil Rights Leader
There are joys which long to be ours. God sends ten thousands truths, which come about us like birds seeking inlet; but we are shut up to them, and so they bring us nothing, but sit and sing awhile upon the roof, and then fly away.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
You think the shadow is the substance.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–73) Persian Muslim Mystic
The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Error always addresses the passions and prejudices; truth scorns such mean intrigue, and only addresses the understanding and the conscience.
—Azel Backus (1765–1816) American Educator, Minister
All necessary truth is its own evidence.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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