true

The criterion which we use to test the genuineness of apparent statements of fact is the criterion of verifiability.We say that a sentence isfactually significant to any given person, if, and only if, he knows how to 44 verify the proposition which it purports to express ö that is, if he knows what observations would lead him, under certain conditions, to accept the proposition as being true, or reject it as being false.

—Ayer, SirAlfred Jules

First, you know, a new theory is attacked as absurd; then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant; finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they themselves discovered it.

—James,William

A child should always say what's true, And speak when he is spoken to, And behave mannerly at table: At least as far as he is able.

—Stevenson, Robert Louis

And is it true? And is it true, This most tremendous tale of all, Seen in a stained-glass window's hue, A Baby in an ox's stall? The Maker of the stars and sea Become a Child on earth for me?

—Betjeman, SirJohn

Do you think that the things people make fools of themselves about are any less real and true than the things they behave sensibly about? Theyare more true: theyare the only things that are true.

—Shaw, George Bernard

L'art pour l'art est un vain mot. L'art pour le vrai, l'art pour le beau et le bon, voila'   la religion que je cherche. Art for art's sake is an empty phrase. Art for the sake of the true, art for the sake of the good and the beautiful, that is the faith I search for.

—Samuelson, Sir Sydney

Idon'tcarewhat anybodysaysabout measlong asit isn't true.

—Capote,Truman

'It was as true,'said Mr Barkis,'†as taxes is. And nothing's truer than them.'

—Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam

Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answerscan, asa rule, be knowntobetrue, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination, and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.

—Russell, Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl

Be so true to thyself as thou be not false to others.

—Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans

The pellet with the poison's in the chalice from the palace The flagon with the dragon has the brew that is true.

—Panama, Norman and Frank, Melvin

Who fears to speak of Ninety-Eight? Who blushes at the name? When cowards mock the patriot's fate, Who hangs his head for shame? He's all a knave or half a slave Who slights his country thus: But a true man, like you, man, Will fill your glass with us.

—Ingram,John Kells

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

—Bible (NewTestament)

Change proves true on the day it is finished.

—I Ching   c.2000

I amso far likethemidwifethat I cannot myself give birth to wisdom, and the common reproach is true, that, though I question others,I can myself bring nothing to light because there is no wisdom in me.

—Socrates

   O Swallow, Swallow, flying, flying South, Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves, And tell her, tell her, what I tell to thee. O tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each, That bright and fierce and fickle is the South, And dark and true and tender is the North.

—Tennyson

'I don't know they're true,' he said.'I believe them because it's fun to believe them.'

—Bach, Richard

That all who are happy, are equally happy, is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied, but not equally happy. Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness.

—Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson

Animadverti jam ante aliquot annos quam multa, ineunte aetate, falsa pro veris admiserim, et quam dubia sint quaecunque istis postea superextruxi, ac proinde funditus omnia semel in vita esse evertenda, atque a primis fundamentis denno inchoandum, si quid aliquando firmum et mansurum cupiam in scientiis stabilire. Some years ago now I observed the multitude of errorsthat I had accepted as true inmy earliest years, and the dubiousness of the wholesuperstructure I had since then reared on them; and the consequent need of making a clean sweep foronce in my life, and beginning againfrom the very foundations, if Iwould establish somesecure and lasting result in science.

—Descartes, Rene¤

Every true work of art must express a distinct feeling.

—Friedrich, Caspar David

Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

—Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson

When you are old and greyand full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face; And bending down beside the glowing bars, Murmur, a little sadly how Love fled And paced among the mountains overhead And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

—Yeats,W(illiam) B(utler)

Future, n.That periodoftimeinwhichouraffairsprosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured.

—Bierce, Ambrose Gwinett

One geometry can not be more true than another; it can only be more convenient.Geometry is not true, it is advantageous.

—Pirsig, Robert M(aynard)

Hope, art thou true, or dost thou flatter me?

—Shute, Nevil originally Nevil Shute Norway

Give me my scallop-shell of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon, My scrip of joy, immortal diet, My bottle of salvation, My gown of glory, hope's true gage, And thus I'll take my pilgrimage.

—Raleigh, Sir Walter

I know not if I know what true love is, But if I know, then, if I love not him, I know there is none other I can love.

—Tennyson

Journalists saya thing that they know isn't true, in the hope that if they keep on saying it long enough it will be true.

—Bennett, (Enoch) Arnold

The shackles of an old love straitened him, His honour rooted in dishonour stood, And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.

—Tennyson

God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar.

—Bible (NewTestament)

Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the Kingö Else, wherefore born?

—Tennyson

It isthespirit of theageto believethat any fact, no matter how suspect, is superior to any imaginative exercise, no matter how true.

—Vidal, Gore originally Eugene Luther Vidal,Jr

Rien n'est vrai que ce qu'on ne dit pas. Nothing is true except that which is unsaid.

—Anouilh,Jean

In psychoanalysis nothing is true except the exaggerations.

—Adorno,Theodor

That sure extinction that we travel to And shall be lost in always. Not to be here, Not to be anywhere, And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.

—Larkin, Philip Arthur

We were to do more business after dinner, but after dinner is after dinneröan old saying and a true,'much drinking, little thinking'.

—Swift,Jonathan

The highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself† In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation.

—Kennedy,John F(itzgerald)

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year isgoing, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.

—Tennyson

A real Centauröpart man, part horse's ass. A rough appraisal, but curiously true.

—Acheson, Dean Gooderham

He said true things but called them by wrong names.

—Browning, Robert

I thought that writing a detective story would be a wonderful apprenticeship because, whatever people tell you, a crime novel is not easy to write well. As I continued with my craft I became increasingly fascinated by the form and realized that you can use the formula to say something true about men and women and the society in which they live.

—Baroness

All fiction is for me a kind of magic and trickeryöa confidence trick, trying to make people believe something is true that isn't.

—Wilson, SirAngus FrankJohnstone

For good ye are and bad, and like to coins, Some true, some light, but every one of you Stamped with the image of the King.

—Tennyson

What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was prov'd true before, Prove false again? Two hundred more.

—Butler, Samuel

'The true'to put it very briefly, is only the expedient in the way of our thinking, just as 'the right' is only the expedient in the way of our behaving.

—James,William

Louers be war and tak gude heid about Quhome that ye lufe, for quhome ye suffer paine. I lat yow wit, thair is richt few thairout Quhome ye may traist to haue trew lufe agane.

—Henryson, Robert

Le sentiment de l'infini est le ve¤  ritable attribut de l'a"  me. To feel the infinite is the true attribute of the soul.

—Stae«  l, Germaine Necker, Baronne de

La vraie e¤  loquence se moque de l'e¤  loquence, la vraie morale se moque de la morale. True eloquence has no time foreloquence, true morality has no time for morality.

—Pascal, Blaise

True Love in this differs from gold and clay, That to divide is not to take away.

—Shelley, Percy Bysshe

   My true love hath my heart and I have his, By just exchange one for the other giv'n; I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss, There never was a better bargain driv'n.

—Shute, Nevil originally Nevil Shute Norway

   Your true lover of literature is never fastidious.

—Southey, Robert

Without contemplating last and late the true nature of poetry. The drive to connect. The dream of a common language.

—Rich, Adrienne Cecile

   It istruethat sinisthe cause of all thispain; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

—Julian of Norwich known as LadyJulian

Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy.

—Golding, Sir William (Gerald)

The bow was made in England, Of true wood, of yew wood, The wood of English bows.

—Doyle, SirArthur Conan

Vous savez qu'on doit se sentir heureux.Tous les vrais e¤  crivains ont e¤  prouve¤   ce sentiment. Quand on ne l'e¤  prouve pas, je suis oblige¤   de vous en avertir, c'est mauvais signe. You know that one should feel happy. All thetrue writers have experienced this feeling.When one does not experience it, I am obliged to tell you that it is a bad sign.

—Sarraute, Nathalie

Quod enim mavult homo verum esse, id potius credit. For what a man would like to be true, that he more readily believes.

—Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans

Je pouvais prendre pour re'  gle ge¤  ne¤  rale, que les choses que nous concevons fort clairement et fort distinctement sont toutes vraies. I could take it as a general rule that whatever we conceive very clearly and very distinctly is true.

—Descartes, Rene¤

It is no good saying we [journalists] must report only what is true because what is true cannot always be proven.

—Humphrys,John

What I tell you three times is true.

—Dodgson

How awful to reflect that what people say of us is true!

—Smith, Logan Pearsall

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, thinkon these things.

—Bible (NewTestament)

Only reasoncan convinceus ofthosethreefundamental truths without a recognition of which there can be no effective liberty: that what we believe is not necessarily true; that what we like is not necessarily good; and that all questions are open.

—Bell, (Arthur) Clive Howard

No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.

—Hawthorne, Nathaniel