True Words Quotes:

The true word leads; the untrue misleads.

- Franz Kafka

topic: True Words, Untrue, Mislead

Many a true word is spoken in jest

- Geoffrey Chaucer

source: Geoffrey Chaucer (2016). “The Reeve's Prologue and Tale”, p.108, Cambridge University Press

topic: Jest, True Words

Many true words are spoken in jest.

- Dinah Maria Murlock Craik

topic: Humor, Jest, True Words

True words are not pleasing. Pleasing words are not true.

- Laozi

topic: Knowledge, Taoism, True Words

Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere. Those who are skilled (in the Tao) do not dispute (about it); the disputatious are not skilled in it. Those who know (the Tao) are not extensively learned; the extensively learned do not know it.

- Laozi

source: Colin Bradshaw-Jones, Laozi, Lao Tzu (2006). “The Tao Te Ching, Eighty-one Maxims from the Father of Taoism”, p.107, Lulu.com

topic: Fancy, Debate, True Words

True words seem false.

- Laozi

topic: Knowledge, Taoism, True Words

There's many a true word spoken in jest.

- James Joyce

source: James Joyce, Mark Gaipa, Sean Latham, Robert Scholes (2015). “The Little Review "Ulysses"”, p.292, Yale University Press

topic: Truth, Jest, True Words

They do not love that do not show their love. The course of true love never did run smooth. Love is a familiar. Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but Love.

- William Shakespeare

topic: Love, Running, Angel, Most Memorable, Mid Summer Nights Dream

The unexamined life is not worth living.

- Socrates

topic: Inspirational Life, Life Is, Unexamined Life, Inner Life, Journey Of Self Discovery

Some people have the coldest smiles, but have the tenderest hearts. And many have the most tender smiles, but carry the coldest hearts. You cannot judge a man by his smile, but you CAN judge a man by his heart. The smallest actions reveal the most about a hearts true color, so pay attention to them. Actions are the true words of the heart.

- Suzy Kassem

topic: Heart, Men, Color, His Smile, True Colors

It is a good and safe rule to sojourn in every place as if you meant to spend your life there, never omitting an opportunity of doing a kindness, or speaking a true word, or making a friend.

- John Ruskin

topic: Inspirational, Kindness, Opportunity, Omitting, True Words

Within the word we find two dimensions-reflection and action. If one is sacrificed even in part, the other immediately suffers. To speak a true word is to transform the world.

- Paulo Freire

source: Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.63, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

topic: Reflection, Two, Suffering, True Words

To speak a true word is to transform the world.

- Paulo Freire

topic: World, Speak, Pedagogy Of The Oppressed, Praxis, True Words

There is no true word that is not at the same time a praxis. Thus, to speak a true word is to transform the world.

- Paulo Freire

source: Paulo Freire, Elizabeth Galligan, Romelia Hurtado de Vivas (2008). “Pioneers in Education: Essays in Honor of Paulo Freire”, p.110, Nova Publishers

topic: World, Speak, Praxis, True Words

Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid. Everyone knows this is true, but few can put it into practice. Therefore the Master remains serene in the midst of sorrow. Evil cannot enter his heart. Because he has given up helping, he is people's greatest help. True words seem paradoxical.

- Laozi

topic: Strength, Truth, Heart, True Words

It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, who is the true Word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to Him.

- C. S. Lewis

source: "Letters of C. S. Lewis" by C. S. Lewis, (p. 247), 1966.

topic: Teacher, Taken, Use, True Words

If God has given us Himself, if He abides in us and we in Him, according to His own true words, then what will He not give me, what will He spare for me, of what will He deprive me, how can He forsake me? 'The Lord is my shepherd: therefore I lack nothing' (Ps. 23:1).

- John of Kronstadt

topic: Christian, Giving, Shepherds, True Words

Writing is like praying, because you stop all other activities, descend into silence, and listen patiently to the depths of your soul, waiting for true words to come. When they do, you thank God because you know the words are a gift, and you write them down as honestly and cleanly as you can.

- Helen Prejean

source: Helen Prejean (2006). “The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions”, p.195, Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd

topic: Writing, Silence, Waiting, True Words

People say sticks and stones may break your bones, but names can never hurt you, but that's not true. Words can hurt. They hurt me. Things were said to me that I still haven't forgotten.

- Demi Lovato

topic: Hurt, Hate, Names, Sticks And Stones, Words Can Hurt

The true word of God is written in our heart.

- KRS-One

topic: Heart, Word Of God, True Words

Beautiful. True. Words to remind yourself, words to live by.

- Dianna Agron

topic: Beautiful, Live By, True Words, Words To Live By

My dad taught me true words you have to use in every relationship. Yes, baby.

- Star Jones

topic: Baby, Dad, Taught, True Words

She [my mother] said that if I listened to her, later I would know what she knew: where true words came from, always from up high, above everything else. And if I didn't listen to her, she said my ear would bend too easily to other people, all saying words that had no lasting meaning, because they came from the bottom of their hearts, where their own desires lived, a place where I could not belong.

- Amy Tan

source: Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club”, p.185, Penguin

topic: Mother, Heart, People, True Words

People may claim to hate puns, but most true word lovers have groaned to like them.

- Jay Heinrichs

source: Jay Heinrichs (2011). “Word Hero: A Fiendishly Clever Guide to Crafting the Lines that Get Laughs, Go Viral, and Live Forever”, p.72, Three Rivers Press

topic: Hate, People, May, True Words

I got into songwriting because I'm not very good at communicating sometimes, just my true words, so music was always my way of expressing myself and being able to put things into lyrics that I couldn't say necessarily in my everyday life.

- LIZ

topic: Everyday, Able, Way, True Words

Nevertheless, we are led to believe that true words can communicate more than truth, they communicate what life is all about, that it's threatened, when it's threatened, when it's in danger, then it becomes a curse or a blessing.

- Elie Wiesel

source: Source: www.nobelprize.org

topic: Believe, Blessing, Life Is, True Words, Nevertheless

And then he says, "The writer must be true to truth." And that's a killer, because the only way you can describe a human being truly is by describing his imperfections. The perfect human being is uninteresting - the Buddha who leaves the world, you know. It is the imperfections of life that are lovable. And when the writer sends a dart of the true word, it hurts. But it goes with love. This is what Mann called "erotic irony," the love for that which you are killing with your cruel, analytical word.

- Joseph Campbell

source: Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.3, Anchor

topic: Hurt, Writing, Perfect, True Words

I am so used to hints and mixed messages, saying things that might mean what they sort of sound like they mean. Games and contests, roles and rituals, talking in twelve languages at once so the true words won't be so obvious. I am not used to a plainspoken, honest truth.

- David Levithan

source: David Levithan (2009). “Boy Meets Boy”, p.26, Knopf Books for Young Readers

topic: Mean, Talking, Games, True Words

Many a true word hath been spoken in jest.

- William Shakespeare

topic: Jest, True Words

In elementary school, many a true word is spoken in guess.

- Henny Youngman

source: Geoffrey Chaucer (2016). “The Reeve's Prologue and Tale”, p.108, Cambridge University Press

topic: Education, Teaching, School, Elementary School, True Words

Human existence cannot be silent, nor can it be nourished by false words, but only by true words, with which people transform the world. To exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it. Once named, the world in its turn reappears to the namers as a problem and requires of them a new naming. People are not built in silence, but in word, in work, in action-reflection.

- Paulo Freire

topic: Reflection, Names, People, True Words

The party of God and the party of Literature have more in common than either will admit their texts may conflict, but their bigotries coincide. Both insist on being the sole custodians of the true word and its only interpreters.

- Frederic Raphael

topic: Party, Custodians, Literature, True Words

The Church is that one wherein the true word of God is preached, which Christ left to His Apostles, which the same Church hath always observed, the doctors preached, and Martyrs and confessors witnessed. This is the Church I believe to be true.

- Margaret Clitherow

topic: Believe, Doctors, Church, True Words

It is urgent to show ourselves at the side of our compañeros in San Marcos Avilés. The threat is immediate. The Committees of the True Word must make ourselves known in every way we can, to show clearly the strength of our solidarity.

- Gustavo Esteva

topic: Way, Sides, Solidarity, True Words

True words aren't eloquent; eloquent words aren't true. Wise men don't need to prove their point; men who need to prove their point aren't wise. The Master has no possessions. The more he does for others, the happier he is. The more he gives to others, the wealthier he is. The Tao nourishes by not forcing. By not dominating, the Master leads.

- Laozi

topic: Leadership, Wise, Men, Tao Te Ching Leadership, Book Of Tao

There's many a true word spoken in jest; scientists are abominably solemn; therefore scientists miss many a true word.

- Anthony Standen

source: Anthony Standen (1950). “Science is a sacred cow”

topic: Truth, Science, Missing, True Words