Truth & Lies Quotes

I don't want any yes-men around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs.

It's not enough to speak, but to speak true.

There are a lot of lies going around...and half of them are true.

In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

Truth is incontrovertible, ignorance can deride it, panic may resent it, malice may destroy it, but there it is.

Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it.

A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding.

Great liars are also great magicians.

This truth should be kept constantly in mind by every free people desiring to preserve the sanity and poise indispensable to the permanent success of self-government.

Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth; when perfect sincerity is expected, perfect freedom must be allowed; nor has anyone who is apt to be angry when he hears the truth any cause to wonder that he does not hear it.

Truth is confirmed by inspection and delay; falsehood by haste and uncertainty.

Lies are essential to humanity. They are perhaps as important as the pursuit of pleasure and moreover are dictated by that pursuit.

Time passes, and little by little everything that we have spoken in falsehood becomes true.

Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.

Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.

I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.

Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.