“Truth is a demure lady, much too ladylike to knock you on your head and drag you to her cave. She is there, but people must want her, and seek her out.”
Truth is simple in theory and messy in practice. These quotes tackle honesty, deception, self-awareness, and the uncomfortable reality that the truths most worth hearing are usually the ones you least want to hear.
“A lot of journalism wants to have what they call objectivity without them having a commitment to pursuing the truth, but that doesn't work. Objectivity requires belief in and a commitment toward pursuing the truth - having an object outside of our personal point of view.”
“Truth is a demure lady, much too ladylike to knock you on your head and drag you to her cave. She is there, but people must want her, and seek her out.”
“No one can be happy who has been thrust outside the pale of truth. And there are two ways that one can be removed from this realm: by lying, or by being lied to.”
“Veiling truth in mystery.”
“Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity and truth accomplishes no victories without it.”
“The truth is, I'm proud of the life I've lived so far, and though I've made my share of mistakes, I have no regrets.”
“Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth to see it like it is, and tell it like it is, to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth.”
“Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that all may share Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.”
“It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.”
“In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.”
“Not that I regret saying what I believed to be the truth, but I regret anything that I might have written or spoken that could have been used in a way to help to foster that atmosphere out of which came the loss of life of Brother Malcolm.”
“Let a man get up and say, Behold, this is the truth, and instantly I perceive a sandy cat filching a piece of fish in the background. Look, you have forgotten the cat, I say.”
“Even if I accepted that Jesus - like almost every other prophet on record - was born of a virgin, I cannot think that this proves the divinity of his father or the truth of his teachings. The same would be true if I accepted that he had been resurrected.”
“Light is the symbol of truth.”
“Fiction is a kind of compassion-generating machine that saves us from sloth. Is life kind or cruel? Yes, Literature answers. Are people good or bad? You bet, says Literature. But unlike other systems of knowing, Literature declines to eradicate one truth in favor of another.”
“Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.”