Quotes About Truth

In death it exposed to his enemies that poverty which in life he had perhaps concealed from his friends.

The work of the poet as a vehicle of world harmony has a social character—this is, it is concerned with the doings of the poet's fellow men, among whom he lives and whose fate he shares. He does not speak 'for them' but with them, nor does he set himself apart from them: otherwise he would not be a source of truth.

if falsehood is your nature, then only by falsehood can you be true.

Am I telling the truth? I think I am a truthful man. From moment to moment I believe myself sincere, but sometimes looking back I can see I've been mistaken, even that I've lied.

But the hardest task in any writing is to present the truth so it can be seen as true. One cannot just give the history of an event in a straightforward manner and expect it to be believed. That history must have a shape. It must have direction and movement.

so many people walk up to me and tell me they're dead, though they're just describing their afternoons.

The good poem simultaneously reveals and conceals. It is in this sense that it is mysterious. The not so good poem is often mysterious only by virtue of its concealment. Or it wears exotic clothing to hide its essential plainness.

the reality of geography could not be wished away.

Seriousness is no more a guarantee of truth, insight, authenticity or probity, than humour is a guarantee of superficiality and stupidity.

A true thing, poorly expressed, is a lie.

Literature is the only access to truth we have on this planet.

The Greek word for 'everything that is the case', what we could call 'the universe', is COSMOS. And at the moment - although 'moment' is a time word and makes no sense just now (neither does the phrase 'just now') - at the moment, Cosmos is Chaos and only Chaos because Chaos is the only thing that is the case.

I believe one of the greatest human failings is to prefer to be right than to be effective

Whatever the truth, science today agrees that everything is destined to return to Chaos. It calls this inevitable fate entropy: part of the great cycle from Chaos to order and back again to Chaos.

But an Adrian also knew that an Adrian's lies were real: they were lived and felt and acted out as thoroughly as another man's truths - if other men had truths - and he believed it possible that this last lie might see him through to the grave.

It is a cliché that most clichés are true, but then like most clichés, that cliché is untrue

He had quickly happened upon the truth which many lonely contemporaries would never discover, the truth that everybody, simply everybody, was panting for it and could, with patience, be shown that they were panting for it. So Adrian grabbed what was to hand and had the time of his life genitally - focusing exclusively on his own gender of course, for this was 1973 and girls had not yet been invented.

The action is played out on the golden horizon between reality and legend, the beguiling penumbra where fable and fact coexist.

The puzzle that besets me is best expressed by the following statements. a: None of what follows ever happened b: All of what follows is entirely true

You will not find the truth but the truth will find you,' 'Seek not to know, but know to seek,' 'You don't make mistakes, mistakes make you

I am a lover of truth, a worshipper of freedom, a celebrant at the altar of language and purity and tolerance.

well, as Auden wondered: Will it come like a change in the weather? Will its greeting be courteous or rough? Will it alter my life altogether? O tell me the truth about love.

We're delighted to have you here,' he said, putting an arm round the young man's shoulder, 'but a word of advice. Don't try to be clever. We're all clever here. Only try to be kind, a little kind.' Like most university stories, this one is variously attributed and it probably never even happened but, as the Italians say, se non e vero, e ben trovato - even if it isn't true, it's well founded.

Myth can be a kind of human algebra, which makes it easier to manipulate truth about ourselves.