truth

See Also: CANDOR, HONESTY

1. All the durable truths that have come into the world within historic times have been opposed as bitterly as if they were so many waves of smallpox —H. L. Mencken
2. As with the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of truth is itself gratifying whereas the consummation often turns out to be elusive —Richard Hofstadter
3. Honest as the skin between his brows —William Shakespeare
4. Plain truths, like plain dishes, are commended by everybody, and everybody leaves them whole —Walter Savage Landor
5. Pure truth, like pure gold, has been found unfit for circulation, because men have discovered that it is far more convenient to adulterate the truth than to refine themselves —Charles Caleb Colton
6. Random truths are all I find stuck like burrs about my mind —Phyllis McGinley
7. Rich honesty dwells like a miser … in a poor house; as your pearl in your foul oyster —William Shakespeare
8. Speaking the truth is like writing well, and only comes with practice —John Ruskin

   This has been modernized from “The truth is like writing”

9. Truth … drag it out and beat it like a carpet —Hortense Calisher
10. Truth is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bull —Samuel Johnson
11. Truth is as difficult to lay hold on as air —Walter Savage Landor

    See Also: ELUSIVENESS

12. Truth is as old as God —Emily Dickinson
13. The truth is cold, as a giant’s knee will seem cold —John Ashbery
14. Truth is impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam —John Milton
15. Truth … is not a thing to be thrown about loosely, like small change; it is something to be cherished and hoarded and disbursed only when absolutely necessary —H. L. Mencken
16. The truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch … you may kick it about all day, like a football, and it will be round and full at evening —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
17. The truth kept wandering in and out of her mind like a lost child, never pausing long enough to be identified —Margaret Millar
18. Truth, like a bird, is ever poised for flight at man’s approach —Jean Brown
19. Truth, like a gentle shower, soaks through the ears and moistens the intellect —Anon
20. Truth, like a point or line, requires an acuteness and intention to its discovery —Joseph Glanville
21. Truth, like a suit of armor, stubbornly resists all attempts to penetrate it —Robert Traver

    In his novel, People Versus Kirk, Traver continues the simile with “… while the lie, under probing, almost invariably reveals some chinks and cracks.”

22. Truth is like a torch, the more it is shook, the more it shines —Sir William Hamilton

    Modernized from “The more ’tis shook, it shines.”

23. Truth, like gold, is not less so for being newly brought out of the mine —John Locke
24. Truth, like light, blinds —Albert Camus

    Camus prefaces his simile from The Fall as follows: “Sometimes it is easier to see clearly into the liar than into the man who tells the truth.”

25. Truth, like the juice of the poppy, in small quantities, calms men; in larger, heats and irritates them, and is attended by fatal consequences in its excess —Walter Savage Landor
26. Truth’s like a fire, and will burn through and be seen —Maxwell Anderson
27. A truth’s prosperity is like a jest’s; it lies in the ear of him that hears it —Samuel Butler
28. The way of truth is like a great highway. It is not hard to find —Mencius