Truth Quotes Celebrating Honesty and Communication

Our latest collection of truth quotes to inspire honesty and genuineness.

Consistently telling the truth is not always easy.

Sometimes lying might feel like the best option.

However, the benefits of always being honest with people far outweigh any short term advantages of lying.

As you’ll discover from the truth quotes below, being honest is beneficial, not only to you but also to the people around you.

When you embrace truth, it earns you the respect and trust of others, makes you feel better about yourself, and helps you attract better friends.

Besides, telling the truth is mentally easier – if you tell too many lies, it will be hard for you to keep up with what you have said.

Concealing a truth can lead to anxiety, stress, and depression.

It does not take long for people to figure out dishonesty.

But if you always speak the truth, people will know it sooner and look at you with respect.

Being honest and truthful helps build strong credibility.

It also results in a clean conscience, which is one of the requirements of happiness.

Although being 100% honest is almost impossible, the truth quotes below will help stop you from lying about things.

Telling the truth is self-empowering and incredibly positive, so we should all make it a priority.

Below is our collection of inspirational, wise, and positive truth quotes, truth sayings, and truth proverbs, collected from a variety of sources over the years.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration. 

Our inspirational quote category page has even more inspirational and educational quotes.

Truth quotes celebrating honesty and communication

1. “Beauty is truth’s smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror.” – Rabindranath Tagore

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2. “Truth is everybody is going to hurt you: you just got to find the ones worth suffering for.” – Bob Marley

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3. “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” – Thomas Jefferson

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4. “We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters… that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules… and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.” – Michelle Obama

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5. “The truth is, we all face hardships of some kind, and you never know the struggles a person is going through. Behind every smile, there’s a story of a personal struggle.” – Adrienne C. Moore

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6. “No legacy is so rich as honesty.” – William Shakespeare

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7. “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

8. “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” –  Albert Einstein

9. “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” – Buddha

10. “There’s nothing so kingly as kindness, and nothing so royal as truth.” – Alice Cary

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Truth quotes to inspire honesty and genuineness

11. “I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it’s for or against.” – Malcolm X

12. “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.” – Elvis Presley

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13. “We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.” – Iris Murdoch

14. “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” – Winston Churchill

15. “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” – Abraham Lincoln

16. “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” – Isaac Newton

17. “Be Impeccable with Your Word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.” – Don Miguel Ruiz

18. “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.” – Leo Tolstoy

19. “Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.” – W. Clement Stone

20. “A great man does not seek applause or place; he seeks for truth; he seeks the road to happiness, and what he ascertains, he gives to others.” – Robert Green Ingersoll

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Truth quotes that will inspire you to always be truthful

21. “The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.”  – Ayn Rand

22. “To live in the light of a new day and an unimaginable and unpredictable future, you must become fully present to a deeper truth – not a truth from your head, but a truth from your heart; not a truth from your ego, but a truth from the highest source.” – Debbie Ford

23. “For every good reason there is to lie, there is a better reason to tell the truth.” – Bo Bennett

24. “Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.” – Mahatma Gandhi

25. “If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.” – Albert Einstein

26. “Honest communication is built on truth and integrity and upon respect of the one for the other.” – Benjamin E. Mays

27. “Our duty is to encourage everyone in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.” – Swami Vivekananda

28. “The truth is: Belonging starts with self-acceptance. Your level of belonging, in fact, can never be greater than your level of self-acceptance, because believing that you’re enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic, vulnerable and imperfect.” – Brene Brown

29. “You can hate me. You can go out there and say anything you want about me, but you will love me later because I told you the truth.” – Mary J. Blige

30. “The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.” – John F. Kennedy

Truth quotes to help you live a happier, less anxious life

31. “Truth is the torch that gleams through the fog without dispelling it.” – Claude Adrien Helvetius

32. “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” – Arthur Conan Doyle

33. “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” – Henry David Thoreau

34. “Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it.” – Emily Dickinson

35. “A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God’s truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.” – John Calvin

36. “Let us dream of tomorrow where we can truly love from the soul, and know love as the ultimate truth at the heart of all creation.” – Michael Jackson

37. “To love our neighbor as ourselves is such a truth for regulating human society, that by that alone one might determine all the cases in social morality.” – John Locke

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38. “Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.” – Nikola Tesla

39. “The earth is supported by the power of truth; it is the power of truth that makes the sun shine and the winds blow; indeed, all things rest upon truth.” – Chanakya

40. “Stop holding your truth; speak your truth. Be yourself. It’s the healthiest way to be.” – Tiffany Haddish

Truth quotes to help you create deeper connections with people

41. “I believe there’s an inner power that makes winners or losers. And the winners are the ones who really listen to the truth of their hearts.” – Sylvester Stallone

42. “On the mountains of truth, you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.”  – Friedrich Nietzsche

43. “There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth.” – Charles Dickens

44. “Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

45. “Seek not greatness, but seek truth and you will find both.” – Horace Mann

46. “Every Christian must be convinced of his fundamental and vital duty of bearing witness to the truth in which he believes and the grace that has transformed him.” – Pope John XXIII

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47. “Truth is the ultimate power. When the truth comes around, all the lies have to run and hide” –  Ice Cube

48. “I know where I’m going and I know the truth, and I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m free to be what I want.” – Muhammad Ali

49. “Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can comprehend. To understand the things that are at our door is the best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond.”  – Hypatia

50. “Free expression is the base of human rights, the root of human nature and the mother of truth. To kill free speech is to insult human rights, to stifle human nature and to suppress truth.” – Liu Xiaobo

More truth quotes and sayings

51. “Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” – Oscar Wilde

52. “Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty.” – Madame de Stael

53. “Every truth has two sides; it is as well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either.” – Aesop

54. “Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.” – Edward R. Murrow

55. “The truth that is suppressed by friends is the readiest weapon of the enemy.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

56. “Truth is truth to the end of reckoning.” – William Shakespeare

57. “The naked truth is always better than the best-dressed lie.” – Ann Landers

58. “To love truth for truth’s sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues.” – John Locke

59. “Always tell the truth. That way you don’t have to remember what you said.” – Mark Twain

60. “Truth never penetrates an unwilling mind.” – Jorge Luis Borges

Other truth quotes and sayings

61. “Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones.” – John Lennon

62. “Honesty requires that we communicate our thoughts and feelings, not our conclusions.” – Stefan Molyneux

63. “But communicate with honest appreciation and you’ll be amazed how she lights up in front of you.” – Mark Manson

64. “Communication works best when we combine appropriateness with authenticity, finding that sweet spot where opinions are not brutally honest but delicately honest.” – Sheryl Sandberg

65. “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” – Oscar Wilde

66. “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” – Joe Klaas

67. “Truth only means something when it’s hard to admit.” – Nicholas Sparks

68. “The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.” – David Foster Wallace

69. “The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.” – Lao Tzu

70. “Truth crushed to earth shall rise again.” – William Cullen Bryant

Truth quotes we all need to live an authentic, honest life

71. “The truth.” Dumbledore sighed. “It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.” ― J.K. Rowling

72. “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” ― Mark Twain

73. “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

74. “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” ― Aldous Huxley

75. “Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky

76. “A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.” ― Oscar Wilde

77. “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” ― Winston S. Churchill

78. “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” ― Flannery O’Connor

79. “Tell the truth, or someone will tell it for you.” ― Stephanie Klein

80. “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” ― Marcus Aurelius

More truth quotes that we can all relate to

81. “When you cut pieces out of the truth to avoid looking like a fool you end up looking like a moron instead.” ― Robin Hobb

82. “Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.” ― Voltaire

83. “Every person must choose how much truth he can stand.” ― Irvin D. Yalom

84. “A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.” ― Tim O’Brien

85. “Don’t assume, ask. Be kind. Tell the truth. Don’t say anything you can’t stand behind fully. Have integrity. Tell people how you feel.” ― Warsan Shire

86. “The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.” ― Niels Bohr

87. “Better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.” ― Khaled Hosseini

88. “There is beauty in truth, even if it’s painful. Those who lie, twist life so that it looks tasty to the lazy, brilliant to the ignorant, and powerful to the weak.” ― José N. Harris

89. “If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.” ― René Descartes

90. “The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.” ― Aristotle

Truth Quotes That Will Set You Free

91. “When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.” — Thomas Sowell

92. “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world…would do this, it would change the earth.” — William Faulkner

93. “The ability to ask questions is the greatest resource in learning the truth.”

 — Carl Jung

94. “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.” — James A. Garfield 

95. “Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.” —

Spencer Johnson

96. “Truth is the only safe ground to stand on.” — Elizabeth Cady Stanton

97. “I want everyone to tell me the truth, even if it costs him his job.” — Samuel Goldwyn

98. “Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

99. “The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.” — Herbert Agar

100. “Truth is what stands the test of experience.” — Albert Einstein

Which of these truth quotes resonated with you best

Telling the truth makes life easier for everyone.

When you’re honest and truthful, you need only remember one version of each event.

If you always speak the truth, people will find it easy to trust you and look at you with respect.

You’ll create deeper connections with people and you won’t have to remember your lies.

Honesty and seeking the truth is always the way to go.

Hopefully, the truth quotes above have inspired you to always be honest.

Which of these truth quotes resonated with you best?

Do you have any other favorite quotes to add to the list?

Let us know in the comment section below.