Quotes About Truth

All should be laid open to you without reserve, for there is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world.

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led.

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it the second time.

The only security of all is in a free press.

Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be.

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

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

Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.

When the subject is strong, simplicity is the only way to treat it.

There is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world.

the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

Wonderful is the effect of impudent and persevering lying.

Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.

Orang yang membiarkan dirinya berbohong sekali, akan menyadari bahwa lebih mudah berbohong untuk kedua dan ketiga kali sampai menjadi kebiasaan.

This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.

No government ought to be without censors: and where the press is free, no one ever will. If virtuous, it need not fear the fair operation of attack and defence. Nature has given to man no other means of sifting out the truth either in religion, law, or politics. I think it as honorable to the government neither to know, nor notice, it's sycophants or censors, as it would be undignified and criminal to pamper the former and persecute the latter.

Follow truth wherever it may lead you.

When describing the University of Virginia: Here, We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.

Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself.

If Americans desire to be both ignorant and free, they want what never has been and what never will be.

That one generation of men in civil society have no right to make acts to bind another, is a truth that cannot be confused.

Reason and experiment have been indulged, and error has fled before them. It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors? Fallible men; men governed by bad passions, by private as well as public reasons. And why subject it to coercion? To produce uniformity. But is uniformity of opinion desirable? No more than of face and stature.