16 Mark Twain Quotes on Truth

Mark Twain quotes on truth

27. The report of my death was an exaggeration.

34. The silent colossal National Lie that is the support and confederate of all the tyrannies and shams and inequalities and unfairnesses that afflict the peoples - that is the one to throw bricks and sermons at.

38. Honesty is the best policy - when there is money in it.

59. A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.

61. Always acknowledge a fault frankly. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you opportunity to commit more.

80. You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.

110. Only laughter can blow [a colossal humbug] to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.

141. Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.

153. A lie can make it half way around the world before the truth has time to put its boots on. (This has also been attributed to Winston Churchill.)

158. This is petrified truth.

162. What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so.

163. There is something worse than ignorance, and that's knowing what ain't so.

167. Every generalization is false, including this one.

195. If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. (Sometimes quoted as newspapers.)

202. The minority is always in the right. The majority is always in the wrong.

203. There are three kinds of lies - Lies, damned lies, and statistics.

     Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.