truth quotes from influential philosophers, authors and people
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."
4
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
72
"When was the last time you sought knowledge simply for the pursuit of truth? What did you gain from this effort? Think of the people you know. Do any of them strike you as embodying the ideals of Curiositá? How are their lives enriched by this?"
119
"Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning."
187
"Truth is a process not a final destination. The former requires humility and curiosity. The latter dogmatic certainty. There’s always more nuance and wisdom to discover, through empathy and reason."
285
"The unvarnished truth is that almost all the people you meet feel themselves superior to you in some way, and a sure way to their hearts is to let them realize in some subtle way that you recognize their importance, and recognize it sincerely."
331
"We often contradict an opinion for no other reason than that we do not like the tone in which it is expressed."
361
"I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you."
372
"There are two different types of people in the world, those who want to know, and those who want to believe."
381
"A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all."
382
"The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth."
546
"The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think."
597
"What is right is not always popular, and what is popular is not always right."
603
"No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth."
631
"Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it."
682
"It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong."
701
"The pursuit of what is true and the practice of what is good are the two most important objects of philosophy."
710
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."
711
"If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things."
907
"I suppose therefore that all things I see are illusions; I believe that nothing has ever existed of everything my lying memory tells me. I think I have no senses. I believe that body, shape, extension, motion, location are functions. What is there then that can be taken as true? Perhaps only this one thing, that nothing at all is certain."
908
"To know what people really think, pay attention to what they do, rather than what they say."
914
"To live without philosophizing is in truth the same as keeping the eyes closed without attempting to open them."
920
"There is nothing more ancient than the truth."
921
"Some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehoods that I had accepted as true in my childhood, and by the highly doubtful nature of the whole edifice that I had subsequently based on them. I realized that it was necessary, once in the course of my life, to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last."
932
"So blind is the curiosity by which mortals are possessed, that they often conduct their minds along unexplored routes, having no reason to hope for success, but merely being willing to risk the experiment of finding whether the truth they seek lies there."
935
"It is best not to go on for great quest for truth , it will only make you miserable."
937
"To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues."
948
"If the truth shall kill them, let them die."
984
"The truth brings no man a fortune."
1016
"Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being."
1025
"Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object."
1038
"A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad."
1042
"Truth is mysterious, elusive, always to be conquered. Liberty is dangerous, as hard to live with as it is elating. We must march toward these two goals, painfully but resolutely, certain in advance of our failings on so long a road."
1051
"Love is the expression of the one who loves, not of the one who is loved. Those who think they can love only the people they prefer do not love at all. Love discovers truths about individuals that others cannot see."
1069
"It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong."
1180
"If you thought that science was certain – well, that is just an error on your part."
1193
"We shall probably get nearest to the truth if we think of the conscious and personal psyche as resting upon the broad basis of an inherited and universal psychic disposition which is as such unconscious, and that our personal psyche bears the same relation to the collective psyche as the individual to society."
61
"Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also."
67
"For in truth great love is born of great knowledge of the thing loved."
118
"Silencing ‘wrong’ ideas will eventually destroy our ability to discover the truth."
288
"Love truth, but pardon error."
726
"If you want the happy tomorrows, you need the truths that hurt today."
807
"And thus, the actions of life often not allowing any delay, it is a truth very certain that, when it is not in our power to determine the most true opinions we ought to follow the most probable."
915
"One unerring mark of the love of truth is not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is built upon will warrant."
960
"Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee."
983
"I measure the strength of a spirit by how much truth it can take."
1203