I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;

I woke, and found that life was Duty.

Was thy dream then a shadowy lie?

Toil on, poor heart, unceasingly;

And thou shalt find thy dream to be

A truth and noonday light to thee.

Ellen Sturgis Hooper (1816-1841): Life a Duty.

Blessings be with them, and eternal praise,

Who gave us nobler loves, and nobler cares!—

The Poets, who on earth have made us heirs

Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Personal Talk. Stanza 4.

While you live, tell truth and shame the devil!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.

O, what authority and show of truth

Can cunning sin cover itself withal!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 1.

Truth crushed to earth shall rise again,—

The eternal years of God are hers;

But Error, wounded, writhes with pain,

And dies among his worshippers.

William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878): The Battle-Field.

No words suffice the secret soul to show,

For truth denies all eloquence to woe.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: The Corsair. Canto iii. Stanza 22.

Doubt thou the stars are fire;

Doubt that the sun doth move;

Doubt truth to be a liar;

But never doubt I love.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891): The Present Crisis.

Truth from his lips prevail'd with double sway,

And fools who came to scoff, remain'd to pray.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Deserted Village. Line 179.

Soon as the evening shades prevail,

The moon takes up the wondrous tale,

And nightly to the listening earth

Repeats the story of her birth;

While all the stars that round her burn,

And all the planets in their turn,

Confirm the tidings as they roll,

And spread the truth from pole to pole.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719): Ode.

For truth has such a face and such a mien,

As to be lov'd needs only to be seen.

John Dryden (1631-1701): The Hind and the Panther. Part i. Line 33.

Truth hath a quiet breast.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 3.

Though love repine, and reason chafe,

There came a voice without reply,—

"'T is man's perdition to be safe

When for the truth he ought to die."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): Sacrifice.

Here shall the Press the People's right maintain,

Unaw'd by influence and unbrib'd by gain;

Here patriot Truth her glorious precepts draw,

Pledg'd to Religion, Liberty, and Law.

Joseph Story (1779-1845): Motto of the "Salem Register." (Life of Story, Vol. i. p. 127.)

How happy is he born or taught,

That serveth not another's will;

Whose armour is his honest thought,

And simple truth his utmost skill!

Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639): The Character of a Happy Life.

If all the world and love were young,

And truth in every shepherd's tongue,

These pretty pleasures might me move

To live with thee, and be thy love.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618): The Nymph's Reply to the Passionate Shepherd.

And after all, what is a lie? 'T is but

The truth in masquerade.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Don Juan. Canto xi. Stanza 37.

Give unto me, made lowly wise,

The spirit of self-sacrifice;

The confidence of reason give,

And in the light of truth thy bondman let me live!

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Ode to Duty.

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,

In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;

Some great cause, God's new Messiah offering each the bloom or blight,

Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right;

And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891): The Present Crisis.

Time still, as he flies, brings increase to her truth,

And gives to her mind what he steals from her youth.

Edward Moore (1712-1757): The Happy Marriage.

'T is strange, but true; for truth is always strange,—

Stranger than fiction.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Don Juan. Canto xiv. Stanza 101.

Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

John Keats (1795-1821): Ode on a Grecian Urn.

For truth is precious and divine,—

Too rich a pearl for carnal swine.

Samuel Butler (1600-1680): Hudibras. Part ii. Canto ii. Line 257.

Truth is the highest thing that man may keep.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1328-1400): Canterbury Tales. The Frankeleines Tale. Line 11789.

Truth is truth

To the end of reckoning.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Measure for Measure. Act v. Sc. 1.

Yet truth will sometimes lend her noblest fires,

And decorate the verse herself inspires:

This fact, in virtue's name, let Crabbe attest,—

Though Nature's sternest painter, yet the best.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 839.

That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies;

That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright;

But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): The Grandmother. Stanza 8.

I pull in resolution, and begin

To doubt the equivocation of the fiend

That lies like truth: "Fear not, till Birnam wood

Do come to Dunsinane."

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 5.

He is the freeman whom the truth makes free.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 733.

I cannot tell how the truth may be;

I say the tale as 't was said to me.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Lay of the Last Minstrel. Canto ii. Stanza 22.

And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,

And captive good attending captain ill.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Sonnet lxvi.

This mournful truth is ev'rywhere confess'd,—

Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): London. Line 176.

Odds life! must one swear to the truth of a song?

Matthew Prior (1664-1721): A Better Answer.

Poets are all who love, who feel great truths,

And tell them; and the truth of truths is love.

Philip James Bailey (1816-1902): Scene, Another and a Better World.

Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891): The Present Crisis.

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;

All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;

All discord, harmony not understood;

All partial evil, universal good;

And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,

One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 289.

It is the glory and good of Art

That Art remains the one way possible

Of speaking truth,—to mouths like mine, at least.

Robert Browning (1812-1890): The Book and the Ring. The Pope. Line 842.

Love truth, but pardon error.

Alain René Le Sage (1668-1747): Discours sur l'Homme. Discours 3.

Here shall the Press the People's right maintain,

Unaw'd by influence and unbrib'd by gain;

Here patriot Truth her glorious precepts draw,

Pledg'd to Religion, Liberty, and Law.

Joseph Story (1779-1845): Motto of the "Salem Register." (Life of Story, Vol. i. p. 127.)

O woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee

To temper man: we had been brutes without you.

Angels are painted fair, to look like you:

There's in you all that we believe of heaven,—

Amazing brightness, purity, and truth,

Eternal joy, and everlasting love.

Thomas Otway (1651-1685): Venice Preserved. Act i. Sc. 1.

On his bold visage middle age

Had slightly press'd its signet sage,

Yet had not quench'd the open truth

And fiery vehemence of youth:

Forward and frolic glee was there,

The will to do, the soul to dare.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Lady of the Lake. Canto i. Stanza 21.

As thou these ashes, little brook, wilt bear

Into the Avon, Avon to the tide

Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas,

Into main ocean they, this deed accursed

An emblem yields to friends and enemies

How the bold teacher's doctrine, sanctified

By truth, shall spread, throughout the world dispersed.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Ecclesiastical Sonnets. Part ii. xvii. To Wickliffe.

The seeming truth which cunning times put on

To entrap the wisest.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 2.

And truth severe, by fairy fiction drest.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): The Bard. III. 3, Line 3.

Go, Soul, the body's guest,

Upon a thankless arrant:

Fear not to touch the best,

The truth shall be thy warrant:

Go, since I needs must die,

And give the world the lie.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618): The Lie.

But the sunshine aye shall light the sky,

As round and round we run;

And the truth shall ever come uppermost,

And justice shall be done.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889): Eternal Justice. Stanza 4.

How happy is he born or taught,

That serveth not another's will;

Whose armour is his honest thought,

And simple truth his utmost skill!

Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639): The Character of a Happy Life.

Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old,

When all our fathers worshipp'd stocks and stones.

John Milton (1608-1674): On the late Massacre in Piedmont.

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;

Still by himself abused or disabused;

Created half to rise, and half to fall;

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,—

The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 13.

Just at the age 'twixt boy and youth,

When thought is speech, and speech is truth.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Marmion. Introduction to Canto ii.

Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere,

In action faithful, and in honour clear;

Who broke no promise, serv'd no private end,

Who gain'd no title, and who lost no friend.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Epistle to Mr. Addison. Line 67.

That not in fancy's maze he wander'd long,

But stoop'd to truth, and moraliz'd his song.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. Prologue to the Satires. Line 340.

'T is strange, but true; for truth is always strange,—

Stranger than fiction.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Don Juan. Canto xiv. Stanza 101.

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,

In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;

Some great cause, God's new Messiah offering each the bloom or blight,

Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right;

And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891): The Present Crisis.

Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,—

A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Truth. Line 327.

This is truth the poet sings,

That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): Locksley Hall. Line 75.

And took for truth the test of ridicule.

George Crabbe (1754-1832): Tales of the Hall. Book viii. The Sisters.

As thou these ashes, little brook, wilt bear

Into the Avon, Avon to the tide

Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas,

Into main ocean they, this deed accursed

An emblem yields to friends and enemies

How the bold teacher's doctrine, sanctified

By truth, shall spread, throughout the world dispersed.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Ecclesiastical Sonnets. Part ii. xvii. To Wickliffe.

Time still, as he flies, brings increase to her truth,

And gives to her mind what he steals from her youth.

Edward Moore (1712-1757): The Happy Marriage.

Time trieth troth in every doubt.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.

For Time will teach thee soon the truth,

There are no birds in last year's nest!

Henry W Longfellow (1807-1882): It is not always May.

Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,

Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 't is prosperous to be just;

Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,

Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891): The Present Crisis.

Urge him with truth to frame his fair replies;

And sure he will: for Wisdom never lies.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Odyssey of Homer. Book iii. Line 25.

For 't is a truth well known to most,

That whatsoever thing is lost,

We seek it, ere it come to light,

In every cranny but the right.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Retired Cat.

Alas! they had been friends in youth;

But whispering tongues can poison truth,

And constancy lives in realms above;

And life is thorny, and youth is vain,

And to be wroth with one we love

Doth work like madness in the brain.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): Christabel. Part ii.

Like one

Who having into truth, by telling of it,

Made such a sinner of his memory,

To credit his own lie.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.

Truth will come to sight; murder cannot be hid long.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Yet truth will sometimes lend her noblest fires,

And decorate the verse herself inspires:

This fact, in virtue's name, let Crabbe attest,—

Though Nature's sternest painter, yet the best.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Line 839.

Poetic Justice, with her lifted scale,

Where in nice balance truth with gold she weighs,

And solid pudding against empty praise.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Dunciad. Book i. Line 52.

I held it truth, with him who sings

To one clear harp in divers tones,

That men may rise on stepping-stones

Of their dead selves to higher things.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): In Memoriam. i. Stanza 1.

Then soon with the emblem of truth overflowing,

And dripping with coolness, it rose from the well.

Samuel Woodworth (1785-1842): The Old Oaken Bucket.

Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land?

All fear, none aid you, and few understand.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 261.