“The continued utterance of a lie does not make it true, but it does convince many that it is, particularly if you can squelch most efforts to expose the lie.” ——Shapley R. Hunter
“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” ——Adolf Hitler
“Do not worry over the charge of treason to your masters, but be concerned about the treason that involves yourselves. Be true to yourself and you cannot be a traitor to any good cause on Earth.” ——Eugene V. Debs, Speech, June 16, 1918
“We allow the most atrocious lies uttered by political and moral prostitutes to go unchallenged. These lies are endlessly recycled in the commercial media until they become ingrained in the public conscience as truth. Worse than burying our heads in the sand, we bury them up our collective ass. How do you like the view?” ——Charles Sullivan
“When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do.” ——William Blake
“Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.” ——Spencer Johnson
“Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.” ——Ralph Waldo Emerson
“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.” ——Mohandas Gandhi
“The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.” ——Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd
“Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.” ——Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775
“There are some things the general public does not need to know, and shouldn’t. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows.” ——Katharine Graham, owner of the Washington Post
“The foulest damage to our political life comes not from the ‘secrets’ which they hide from us, but from the little bits of half-truth and disinformation which they do tell us. These are already pre-digested, and then are sicked up as little gobbits of authorised spew. The columns of defense correspondents in the establishment sheets serve as the spittoons.” ——E. P. Thompson, British historian
“When the natural weakness and imperfection of human understanding is considered, with the unavoidable influences of education, custom, books and company, upon our ways of thinking, I imagine a man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that all the doctrines he holds, are true, and all he rejects are false.” ——Benjamin Franklin, 1740
“The governors of the world believe, and have always believed, that virtue can only be taught by teaching falsehood, and that any man who knew the truth would be wicked. I disbelieve this, absolutely and entirely. I believe that love of truth is the basis of all real virtue, and that virtues based upon lies can only do harm.” ——Bertrand Russell
“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” ——Author Unknown
“One of the world’s greatest problems is the impossibility of any person searching for the truth on any subject when they believe they already have it.” ——Dave Wilbur
“He is the freeman whom the truth makes free, and all are slaves besides.” ——William Cowper
“We cannot afford to differ on the question of honesty if we expect our republic permanently to endure. Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute prerequisite to efficient service to the public. Unless a man is honest, we have no right to keep him in public life; it matters not how brilliant his capacity.” ——Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 26th US President
“…most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion. This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars. Their every truth is not quite true. Their two is not the real two, their four not the real four; so that every word they say chagrins us, and we know not where to begin to set them right.” ——Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance, 1841
“There is tranquility in ignorance, but servitude is its partner.” ——Author Unknown
“A radical is one who speaks the truth.” ——Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr., congressman, father of famous aviator, June 15, 1957
“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.” ——Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918- ), Russian writer, Soviet dissident, imprisoned for 8 years for criticizing Stalin in a personal letter, Nobel Prize for Literature, 1970
“We find few historians who have been diligent enough in their search for truth; it is their common method to take on trust what they help distribute to the public; by which means a falsehood once received from a famed writer becomes traditional to posterity.” ——John Dryden (1631-1700), English poet
“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.” ——Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), author
“Many people today don’t want honest answers insofar as honest means unpleasant or disturbing. They want a soft answer that turneth away anxiety.” ——Louis Kronenberger (1904-1980)
“For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.” ——Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), Italian statesman and political philosopher, Discourses, 1513-1517
“The modern susceptibility to conformity and obedience to authority indicates that the truth endorsed by authority is likely to be accepted as such by a majority of the people.” ——David Edwards, British columnist, Burning All Illusions, 1996
“The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his [or her] deception, the one who lies with sincerity.” ——Andre Gide
“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.” ——Thomas Jefferson
“In order that all men might be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.” ——Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), The Rambler, 1750-52
“Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue.” ——Sallust (86 BC-34 BC), The War with Catiline
“The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others.” ——Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party
“All great truths begin as blasphemies.” ——George Bernard Shaw
“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” ——Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881), Russian novelist
“When people who are honestly mistaken learn the truth, they will either cease being mistaken, or cease being honest!” ——Author Unknown
“By doubting we all come at truth.” ——Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.), Roman Statesman, Philosopher and Orator
“It does not require many words to speak the truth.” ——Chief Joseph (1840-1904), Chief of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of Nez Perce Indians
“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.” ——Oscar Wilde
“In the democracy of the dead all men at last are equal. There is neither rank nor station nor prerogative in the republic of the grave.” ——John James Ingalls
“Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.” ——Henri Frederic Amiel
“Not being known doesn’t stop the truth from being true.” ——Richard Bach
“What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.” ——Francis Bacon
“You never find yourself until you face the truth.” ——Pearl Bailey
“When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.” ——Otto von Bismarck
“Truth never penetrates an unwilling mind.” ——J. L. Borges
“Truth, though it has many disadvantages, is at least changeless. You can always find it where you left it.” ——Phyllis Bottome
“The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.” ——Pearl S. Buck
“Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object.” ——Albert Camus
“Truth, of course, must of necessity be stranger than fiction; for we have made fiction to suit ourselves.” ——G. K. Chesterton
“This is the truth: as from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again.” ——Marcus Tullius Cicero
“Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it.” ——Emily Dickinson
“Truth hurts – not the searching after; the running from!” ——John Eyberg
“God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.” ——Mohandas Gandhi
“I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after Him. I am prepared to sacrifice the things dearest to me in pursuit of this quest. Even if the sacrifice demanded my very life, I hope I may be prepared to give it.” ——Mohandas Gandhi
“Wisdom is found only in truth.” ——Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.” ——Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The truth isn’t always beauty, but the hunger for it is.” ——Nadine Gordimer
“Truth, like a torch, the more it’s shook it shines.” ——William Hamilton
“Truth is the torch that gleams through the fog without dispelling it.” ——Claude-Adrien Helvétius
“The truth has a million faces, but there is only one truth.” ——Hermann Hesse
“Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them.” ——Aldous Huxley
“Truth consists of having the same idea about something that God has.” ——Joseph Joubert
“There is no such thing as a harmless truth.” ——Gregory Nunn
“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.” ——Elvis Presley
“One fool will deny more truth in half an hour than a wise man can prove in seven years.” ——Coventry Patmore
“People say they love truth, but in reality they want to believe that which they love is true.” ——Robert J. Ringer
“If you shut the door to all errors truth will be shut out.” ——Rabindranath Tagore
“The words of truth are always paradoxical.” ——Lao Tzu
“The truth is at the beginning of anything and its end are alike touching.” ——Kenko Yoshida
“The truth is on the march and nothing will stop it.” ——Emile Zola
“Facing the truth is so much easier than all the time and energy it takes running away from it.” ——Author Unknown
“What we resist, persists.” ——Author Unknown
“Truth never damages a cause that is just.” ——Mahatma Gandhi
“The most dangerous untruths are truths moderately distorted.” ——Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
“The truth has a certain elegance and restraint to it. Sometimes it can be a little rough because truth doesn’t spend any time in makeup as lies do. Lies require cosmetics and strategic lighting. Truth possesses its own beauty without the need for artifice and produces its own light.” ——Author Unknown
“Truth has always had many loud proclaimers, but the question is whether a person will in the deepest sense acknowledge the truth, allow it to permeate his whole being, accept all its consequences, and not have an emergency hiding place for himself and a Judas kiss for the consequence.” ——Soren Kierkegaard, Provocations
“In the mountains of truth you never climb in vain.” ——Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra
“Truth is a funny thing. Many want to be known as followers of the truth, but that same many subconsciously hope to avoid the consequences of catching it. To apprehend the truth is to be changed into something we could never have imagined in the fog of our delusions. It takes true abandonment to faith in the Spirit of Truth to finally become conformed to His image. Having a vested interest in what the truth is always leads you to bow before your own image as you peer into that glass darkly. There is no substitute for taking up the cross that kills all ambition and self seeking and following that One who said, ‘I AM the Truth!’ To fall short of this walk is to be forever caught in the lie.” ——Michael Clark
“Just remember this, my girl. When you look up in the sky, you can see the stars and still not see the light.” ——The Eagles, I’m Already Gone
“…the larger the crowd, the more probable that that which it praises is folly, and the more improbable that it is truth; and the most improbable of all that it is any eternal truth.” ——Soren Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart
“…in the matter of a difficult question it is more likely that the truth should have been discovered by the few than by the many.” ——René Descartes, Rules
“No doubt the truth is hard to come by for those who do not like the sound of it — dreams and illusions are so much more pleasant.” ——Anatoli Granovsky, I Was an NKVD Agent
“If you don’t believe something is true, you won’t believe something is right. If your epistemology is gone, your ethics will soon follow. If you have principles, then you have specifics; without principles you have nothing.” ——Dr. Walter H. Johnson, lecture to Epistemology class at Seattle Pacific University, 1967
“The truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. Little men are dissolved in it. If there is any gold, truth makes it shine more brightly. . . .Truth, even in the mouth of an informer, a spy, a briber, can become bigger than anybody who tries to destroy it. Truth survives.” ——Adela Rogers St. Johns, Final Verdict
“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.” ——Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals
“He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.” ——Charles Pierre Péguy, Provincial Letter
“Saints rarely have friends; they are usually hated and derided, for they love and love is always rejected by hard-hearted men….saints do not advertise themselves; good men do not seek out a name in the world….the saints did what they did almost in stealth, asking nothing except that men love God.” ——Taylor Caldwell, Grandmother and the Priests
“Does truth prevail more if we are not on speaking terms with those whose view of truth differs from ours?” ——C. H. Dodd
“Truth is treason in an empire of lies.” ——Ron Paul
“The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth.” ——Edith Sitwell (1887-1964), British poet, critic
“Truth is often hard to swallow, so we rest in comfortable lies and delusions.” ——Dorothy Anne Seese, Freelance political writer
“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 is simply too painful to acknowledge – even to ourselves – that we’ve been so credulous. So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new bamboozles rise. Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication and courage.” ——Carl Sagan
“Truth is illusive because we prefer lies.” ——Gary Amirault
“Truth often stares us right in the face and we walk right by.” ——Gary Amirault
“There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball, And that is to have either a clear conscience or none at all.” ——Ogden Nash
“If Pontius Pilate had asked ‘Who is Truth?’ instead of ‘What is truth?’ he may have found the answer.” ——Gary Amirault
“The world is a stage, to demonstrate the glorious power of our Father’s love for each and every one of us through His Son, Jesus the Chosen One, filled with grace, faith, love, joy, peace, wisdom, forgiveness, truth and righteousness.” ——Gary Amirault
“It is difficult to get a person to understand something when their personal interests are at stake. Jesus’ and His Father’s interests were one. If you see Jesus, you see the Father. Jesus expressed His Father’s interests perfect on a stake (cross, tree)…forgiveness encompassing all of mankind including those who would murder Him. ‘Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.’ (Luke 23:43) Do you share their interests?” ——Gary Amirault
“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.” —Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi
“I call that mind free which protects itself against the usurpations of society, and which does not cower to human opinion: Which refuses to be the slave or tool of the many or of the few, and guards its empire over itself as nobler than the empire of the world.” ——William Ellery Channing
Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it. ——Robert F. Kennedy
Men hate those to whom they have to lie. ——Victor Hugo (1802-1885)