For somehow this is tyranny's disease, to trust no friends.

Aeschylus (525 BC - 456 BC), Prometheus Bound

I never trust people's assertions, I always judge of them by their actions.

Ann Radcliffe (1764 - 1823), The Mysteries of Udolpho, 1764

A human being is only interesting if he's in contact with himself. I learned you have to trust yourself, be what you are, and do what you ought to do the way you should do it. You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it.

Barbra Streisand (1942 - )

You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it.

Barbra Streisand (1942 - )

A man who doesn't trust himself can never truly trust anyone else.

Cardinal¹ de Retz, Memoires

Do not trust all men, but trust men of worth; the former course is silly, the latter a mark of prudence².

Democritus (460 BC - 370 BC)

Anyone who goes through life trusting people without making sure they are worthy³ of trust is a fool. Yet there are people who may be trusted, men as well as women. There are are as many difference in their natures as there are flowers in these meadows.

Elizabeth Aston, The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy, 2005

In a networked world, trust is the most important currency.

Eric Schmidt, University of Pennsylvania Commencement Address, 2009

You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment⁴ if you do not trust enough.

Frank Crane

The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.

Frank Herbert (1920 - 1986)

It is impossible to go through life without trust: That is to be imprisoned⁵ in the worst cell of all, oneself.

Graham Greene, The Ministry⁶ of Fear

For it is mutual⁷ trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together. Our friends seldom profit us but they make us feel safe... Marriage is a scheme to accomplish exactly that same end.

H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

The chief lesson I have learned in a long life is that the only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him; and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust him and show your distrust.

Henry L. Stimson (1867 - 1950)

The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him.

Henry Stimson (1867 - 1950)

Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain.

J. K. Rowling, Harry⁸ Potter and The Chamber⁹ of Secrets, 1999

A person who trusts no one can't be trusted.

Jerome Blattner

Mistrust the man who finds everything good, the man who finds everything evil and still more the man who is indifferent to everything.

Johann K. Lavater

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832), Faust

But the life that no longer trust another human being and no longer forms ties to the political community is not a human life any longer.

Martha Nussbaum, O Magazine, November 2003

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882), Essays, First Series: Prudence, 1841

There are people I know who won't hurt me. I call them corpses¹⁰.

Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 12-06-05

When you really trust someone, you have to be okay with not understanding some things.

Real Live Preacher, Real Live Preacher weblog, 07-08-04

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)

When I'm trusting and being myself... everything in my life reflects this by falling into place easily, often miraculously¹¹.

Shakti Gawain

If we are bound to forgive an enemy, we are not bound to trust him.

Thomas Fuller (1608 - 1661)

Trust thyself only, and another shall not betray thee.

Thomas Fuller (1608 - 1661)

Trust one who has gone through it.

Virgil (70 BC - 19 BC), The Aeneid