Truth is generally the best vindication¹ against slander².

Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865), letter to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, July 18, 1864

There are few nudities so objectionable as the naked truth.

Agnes Repplier (1855 - 1950)

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.

Andre Gide (1869 - 1951)

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed³. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Bible, John 8:32

Chase after truth like hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat-tails.

Clarence Darrow (1857 - 1938)

It's a basic truth of the human condition that everybody lies. The only variable is about what. The weird⁴ thing about telling someone they're dying is it tends to focus their priorities. You find out what matters to them. What they're willing to die for. What they're willing to lie for.

David Shore, House M.D., Three Stories, 2004

The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth.

Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964)

Truth is the only safe ground to stand on.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815 - 1902)

The truth is more important than the facts.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1869 - 1959)

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)

The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.

Herbert Agar

As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.

Josh Billings (1818 - 1885), 'Affurisms from Josh Billings: His Sayings,' 1865

Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'

Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931)

Do not run from the truth. There be nought⁵ so hard to live with as a lie.

Kathryn L. Nelson, Pemberley Manor⁶, 2006

A lie told often enough becomes the truth.

Lenin (1870 - 1924)

A lie can travel halfway⁷ around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), (attributed)

Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal⁸.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Advice to Youth

Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Truth sits upon the lips of dying men.

Matthew Arnold (1822 - 1888), 'Sohrab and Rustum,' 1853

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

Niels Bohr (1885 - 1962)

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895, Act I

Truth persuades by teaching, but does not teach by persuading.

Quintus Septimius Tertullianus (160 AD - 230 AD), Adversus Valentinianos

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

I have been truthful⁹ all along the way. The truth is more interesting, and if you tell the truth you never have to cover your tracks.

Real Live Preacher, RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, January 04, 2004

I guess sometimes you have to lie to find the truth.

Scott Westerfeld, Extras, 2007

Turns out if you never lie, there's always someone mad at you.

Scott Westerfeld, Extras, 2007

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains¹⁰, however improbable, must be the truth?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930), (Sherlock Holmes) The Sign of Four, 1890

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)