Quotes about truth
16 passages from classic authors that speak of truth, for example by Carlo Collodi, John Keats and Okakura Kakuzō.
We kept the passages whose text touches on the theme, starting with those where it comes up most. Each is given word for word, with its author, its work and the reference of the passage. To browse an author’s quotes, follow the name.
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“Lies, my dear boy, are found out immediately, because they are of two sorts. There are lies that have short legs, and lies that have long noses.”
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“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
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“The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings.”
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“And there is no greatness where simplicity, goodness, and truth are absent.”
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“The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom, they are the pillars of society.”
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“Truth is created for the sage, as beauty is for the feeling heart. They own each other.”
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“Love of truth shows itself in this, that a man knows how to find and value the good in everything.”
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“Strength lies in absence of fear, not in the quantity of flesh and muscle we may have on our bodies.”
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“Why need we call thee fair, O night of Spring? / Dost thou not lie between Spring evening / And dawn of Spring?”
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“Strive to lay bare the truth, as well amid the promises and presents of the rich man, as amid the sobs and entreaties of the poor.”
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“And lost be the day to us in which a measure hath not been danced. And false be every truth which hath not had laughter along with it!”
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“To regret one’s own experiences is to arrest one’s own development. To deny one’s own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one’s own life.”
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“It all lies in the fact that men think there are circumstances in which one may deal with human beings without love; and there are no such circumstances.”
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“The peaceful stars shine like points of flame; the whole air is filled with a blue and tender light, which seems to sleep in the network of vapor wherein it lies.”
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“Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky Gives us free scope; only doth backward pull Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull.”
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“Neither the whole of truth nor the whole of good is revealed to any single observer, although each observer gains a partial superiority of insight from the peculiar position in which he stands. Even prisons and sick-rooms have their special revelations.”