Other related topics at: Virtue and Vice The Whole Truth 376. Reason; Truth "Reason and truth will prevail at last." Johnson: Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland Link 745. Truth "Subtility and harmony united are still feeble, when opposed to truth." Johnson: Dryden (Lives of the Poets) Link 749. Honesty; Truth "To revenge reasonable incredulity by refusing evidence, is a degree of insolence with which the world is not yet acquainted; and stubborn audacity is the last refuge of guilt." Johnson: Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland Link 789. Society; Truth "There is no crime more infamous than the violation of truth. It is apparent that men can be social beings no longer than they believe each other. When speech is employed only as the vehicle of falsehood, every man must disunite himself from others, inhabit his own cave, and seek prey only for himself." Johnson: Idler #20 (August 26, 1758) Link 821. Excellence; Poetry; Truth "The basis of all excellence is truth: he that professes love ought to feel its power." Johnson: Cowley (Lives of the Poets) Link 853. Truth "The heart naturally loves truth." Johnson: Pope (Lives of the Poets) Link 861. Truth; Wit "Wit can stand its ground against Truth only a little while." Johnson: Swift (Lives of the Poets) Link 952. The Press; Truth; War "Among the calamities of war may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages." Johnson: Idler #30 (November 11, 1758) Link 953. Deceit; Truth "Falsehoods of convenience or vanity, falsehoods from which no evil immediately visible ensues, except the general degradation of human testimony, are very lightly uttered, and once uttered are sullenly supported." Johnson: Congreve (Lives of the Poets) Link 972. Ego Defenses; Superficiality; Truth; Vanity; Virtue "Though truth and virtue are ... frequently defeated by pride, obstinacy, or folly, we are not allowed to desert them; for whoever can furnish arms which they hitherto have not employed, may enable them to gain some hearts which would have resisted any other method of attack. Every man of genius has some art of fixing the attention peculiar to himself, by which, honestly exerted, he may benefit mankind; for the arguments for purity of life fail of their due influence, not because they have been considered and confuted, but because they have been passed over without consideration." Johnson: Rambler #87 (January 15, 1751) Link 1,001. Integrity; Truth "There are indeed, in the present corruption of mankind, many incitements to forsake truth: the need of palliating our own faults and the convenience of imposing on the ignorance or credulity of others so frequently occur; so many immediate evils are to be avoided, and so many present gratifications obtained, by craft and delusion, that very few of those who are much entangled in life have spirit and constancy sufficient to support them in the steady practice of open veracity." Johnson: Rambler #96 (February 16, 1751) Link 1,002. Flattery; Truth "In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it; for no species of falsehood is more frequent than flattery, to which the coward is betrayed by fear, the dependent by interest, and the friend by tenderness: those who are neither servile nor timorous are yet desirous to bestow pleasure; and, while unjust demands of praise continue to be made, there will always be some whom hope, fear, or kindness will dispose to pay them." Johnson: Rambler #96 (February 16, 1751) Link 1,003. Self-Knowledge; Truth "Truth is, indeed, not often welcome for its own sake; it is generally unpleasing, because contrary to our wishes and opposite to our practice; and, as our attention naturally follows our interest, we hear unwillingly what we are afraid to know, and soon forget what we have no inclination to impress upon our memories." Johnson: Rambler #96 (February 16, 1751) Link 1,043. Truth "Truth allows no choice." Johnson: Milton (Lives of the Poets) Link 1,219. Death; Truth; Writing "In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath." Boswell: Life of Johnson Link 1,248. Truth "Truth is scarcely to be heard but by those from whom it can serve no interest to conceal it." Johnson: Rambler #150 (August 24, 1751) Link 1,330. Argument; Inconclusiveness; Truth "All the force of reason and all the charms of language are indeed necessary to support positions which every man hears with a wish to confute them. Truth finds an easy entrance into the mind when she is introduced by desire, and attended by pleasure; but when she intrudes uncalled, and brings only fear and sorrow in her train, the passes of the intellect are barred against her by prejudice and passion; if she sometimes forces her way by the batteries of argument, she seldom long keeps possession of her conquests, but is ejected by some favoured enemy, or at best obtains only a nominal sovereignty, without influence and without authority." Johnson: Rambler #165 (October 15, 1751) Link 1,343. Bias; Truth "Every man, however profound or abstracted, perceives himself irresistibly alienated by low terms; they who profess the most zealous adherence to truth are forced to admit that she owes part of her charms to her ornaments; and loses much of her power over the soul, when she appears disgraced by a dress uncouth or ill adjusted." Johnson: Rambler #168 (October 26, 1751) Link 1,727. Truth "It has often been observed that the fictions of imposture, and illusions of fancy, soon give way to time and experience; and that nothing keeps its ground but truth, which gains every day new influence by new confirmation." Johnson: Idler #52 (April 14, 1759) Link 1,784. Delusion; Truth "However we may labour for our own deception, truth, though unwelcome, will sometimes intrude upon the mind." Johnson: Idler #80 (October 27, 1759) Link 1,790. Skepticism; Truth "Hume, and other sceptical innovators, are vain men, and will gratify themselves at any expence. Truth will not afford sufficient food to their vanity; so they have betaken themselves to errour. Truth, Sir, is a cow that will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bull." Boswell: Life of Johnson Link