Falsehood Quotes - Page 17

• In 1996, the late, great New York Times columnist William Safire published a column, 'Blizzard of lies,' in which he laid out a series of falsehoods by Hillary Rodham Clinton and declared 'Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady -€” a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation -€” is a congenital liar.'

  Marc Thiessen

  New York, Liars, Lying

  4 Copy quote

• Is there some truth out there? Yes. Is there a lot of falsehood out there? Absolutely.

  Jeff Gannon

  Truth, Specifics

  "Countdown with Keith Olbermann", www.nbcnews.com. February 24, 2005.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Christ taught us truth; the Devil teaches us falsehood, and strives in every way to contradict every truth; devising various calumnies against it.

  John of Kronstadt

  Taught Us, Devil, Way

  4 Copy quote

• To be flattered is grateful, even when we know that our praises are not believed by those who pronounce them; for they prove, at least, our power, and show that our favour is valued, since it is purchased by the meanness of falsehood.

  Samuel Johnson

  Grateful, Favour, Flattery

  Samuel Johnson, Hester Lynch Piozzi, James Boswell (1828). “The Beauties of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous: to which are Now Added Biographical Anecdotes of the Doctor, Selected from the Works of Mrs. Piozzi;--his Life, Recently Published by Mr. Boswell, and Other Authentic Testimonies; Also His Will, and the Sermon He Wrote for the Late Doctor Dodd”, p.181

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it; for no species of falsehood is more frequent than flattery, to which the coward is betrayed by fear, the dependent by interest, and the friend by tenderness: those who are neither servile nor timorous are yet desirous to bestow pleasure; and, while unjust demands of praise continue to be made, there will always be some whom hope, fear, or kindness will dispose to pay them.

  Samuel Johnson

  Kindness, Men, Order

  Samuel Johnson (1797). “The Beauties of Samuel Johnson, Etc. (A New Edition, Being the Ninth.).”, p.101

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Weakness ever sympathizes with vice, because vice is a weakness which assumes the mask of strength. Madness holds reason in horror, and on all subjects it delights in the exaggerations of falsehood. The cause of all bewitchments, the poison of all philtres, the power of all sorcerers are there.

  Eliphas Levi

  Weakness, Vices, Poison

  Eliphas Levi (1968). “Transcendental Magic”, p.353, Weiser Books

  87 Copy quote

  Show source

• Life is not given to us that we might live idly without work. No, our life is a struggle and a journey. Goof should struggle with evil; truth should struggle with falsehood; freedom should struggle with slavery; love should struggle with hatred. Life is movement, a walk along the way of life to the fulfillment of those ideas which illuminate us, both in our intellect and in our hearts, with divine light.

  Giuseppe Mazzini

  Struggle, Heart, Journey

  8 Copy quote

• The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them.

  Thomas Jefferson

  People, Abuse, True And False

  Thomas Jefferson, Andrew M. Allison (1983). “The Real Thomas Jefferson”, Natl Center for Constitutional

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Ideas, Viruses, Messages

  "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference". Book by Malcolm Gladwell, www.huffingtonpost.com. 2000.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Belief is with them mechanical, voluntary: they believe what they are paid for - they swear to that which turns to account. Do you suppose, that after years spent in this manner, they have any feeling left answering to the difference between truth and falsehood?

  William Hazlitt

  Believe, Media, Years

  William Hazlitt, James Thornton (1967). “Miscellaneous writings”

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Falsehoods of convenience or vanity, falsehoods from which no evil immediately visible ensues, except the general degradation of human testimony, are very lightly uttered, and once uttered are sullenly supported.

  Samuel Johnson

  Vanity, Evil, Deceit

  Samuel Johnson (2009). “The Lives of the Poets: A Selection”, p.219, OUP Oxford

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Grow your tree of falsehood from a small grain of truth. Do not follow those who lie in contempt of reality. Let your lie be even more logical than the truth itself, so the weary travelers may find repose.

  Czeslaw Milosz

  Lying, Reality, Tree

  "Child of Europe" sec. 4 (1946) (translation by Jan Darowski)

  66 Copy quote

  Show source

• Animals have this way of constantly confronting us with ultimate questions - about truth and falsehood, guilt and innocence, God and sanctity and the soul - forcing us to define ourselves and our relationship to the world.

  Matthew Scully

  Animal, Soul, Guilt

  Matthew Scully (2003). “Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy”, p.305, Macmillan

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• Truth and falsehood are opposed; but truth is the norm not of truth only but of falsehood also.

  C. S. Lewis

  Truth Is, Norm, Truth And Falsehood

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.33, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• All err the more dangerously because each follows a truth. Their mistake lies not in following a falsehood but in not following another truth.

  Blaise Pascal

  Mistake, Lying, Math

  4 Copy quote

• It is like most other ancient books - a mingling of falsehood and truth, of philosophy and folly - all written by men, and most of the men only partially civilized. Some of its laws are good - some infinitely barbarous. None of the miracles related were performed. . . . Take out the absurdities, the miracles, all that pertains to the supernatural - all the cruel and barbaric laws - and to the remainder I have no objection. Neither would I have for it any great admiration.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Philosophy, Book, Men

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1952). “Life and Letters”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I would rather be a devil in alliance with truth, than an angel in alliance with falsehood.

  Ludwig Feuerbach

  Angel, Devil, Alliances

  Ludwig Feuerbach (2012). “The Essence of Christianity”, p.155, Courier Corporation

  63 Copy quote

  Show source

• Most literary critics agree that fiction cannot be reduced to mere falsehood. Well-crafted protagonists come to life, pornography causes orgasms, and the pretense that life is what we want it to be may conceivably bring about the desired condition. Hence religious parables, socialist realism, Nazi propaganda. And if this story likewise crawls with reactionary supernaturalism, that might be because its author longs to see letters scuttling across ceilings, cautiously beginning to reify themselves into angels. For if they could only do that, then why not us?

  William T. Vollmann

  Religious, Angel, Letters

  William T Vollmann (2005). “Europe Central”, p.36, Penguin

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our families may be corrupted by worldly trends and teachings unless we know how to use the [Book of Mormon] to expose and combat the falsehoods in socialism, organic evolution, rationalism, humanism, and so forth.…And our nation will continue to degenerate unless we read and heed the words of the God of this land, Jesus Christ, and quit building up and upholding the secret combinations which the Book of Mormon tells us proved the downfall of both previous American civilizations.

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Jesus, Book, Teaching

  5 Copy quote

• Strange times are these, in which we live, forsooth ;
  When young and old are taught in Falsehood's school:–
  And the man who dares to tell the truth,
  Is called at once a lunatic and fool.

  George Francis Train

  Peace, Fear, Truth

  22 Copy quote

• Many falsehoods are passing into uncontradicted history.

  Samuel Johnson

  Historical, Passing, Passings

  Samuel Johnson (2014). “The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume III: 1777-1781”, p.200, Princeton University Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Peace is the whole truth that wishes to enrapture humanity. War is the whole falsehood that wants to capture humanity. Peace begins in the soul and ends in the heart. War begins in the mind and ends in the body.

  Sri Chinmoy

  Peace, War, Heart

  7 Copy quote

• Secularism is a religion, a religion that is understood. It has no mysteries, no mumblings, no priests, no ceremonies, no falsehoods, no miracles, and no persecutions.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Miracle, Mystery, Priests

  138 Copy quote

• The best lesson which we get from the tragedy of Karbala is that Husain and his companions were rigid believers in God. They illustrated that the numerical superiority does not count when it comes to the truth and the falsehood. The victory of Husain, despite his minority, marvels me!

  Thomas Carlyle

  Intellectual, Victory, Tragedy

  20 Copy quote

• Human truth is always soiled with falsehood.

  Austin O'Malley

  Truth, Truth Is, Humans

  7 Copy quote