Ambrose Bierce Quotes on Truth (13 Quotes)

OBSTINATE, adj. Inaccessible to the truth as it is manifest in the splendor and stress of our advocacy.

LIAR, n. One who tells an unpleasant truth.

REPORTER, n. A writer who guesses his way to the truth and dispels it with a tempest of words.

TRUTH, n. An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance. Discovery of truth is the sole purpose of philosophy, which is the most ancient occupation of the human mind and has a fair prospect of existing ... to the end of time.

ACKNOWLEDGE, v.t. To confess. Acknowledgment of one another's faults is the highest duty imposed by our love of truth.

RACK, n. An argumentative implement formerly much used in persuading devotees of a false faith to embrace the living truth. As a call to the unconverted the rack never had any particular efficacy, and is now held in light popular esteem.

Doubt, indulged and cherished, is in danger of becoming denial; but if honest, and bent on thorough investigation, it may soon lead to full establishment of the truth.

REVIEW, v.t. To set your wisdom (holding not a doubt of it. Although in truth there's neither bone nor skin to it) At work upon a book, and so read out of it The qualities that you have first read into it.

Dawn, n. Certain old men prefer to rise at about that time, taking a cold bath and a long walk with an empty stomach, and otherwise mortifying the flesh. They then point with pride to these practices as the cause of their sturdy health and ripe years the truth being that they are hearty and old, not because of their habits, but in spite of them. The reason we find only robust persons doing this thing is that it has killed all the others who have tried it.

Who never doubted, never half believed. Where doubt is, there truth is - it is her shadow.

Friendless. Having no favors to bestow. Destitute of fortune. Addicted to utterance of truth and common sense.

STORY, n. A narrative, commonly untrue. The truth of the stories here following has, however, not been successfully impeached.

PLATITUDE, n. The fundamental element and special glory of popular literature. A thought that snores in words that smoke. All that is mortal of a departed truth. A jelly-fish withering on the shore of the sea of thought. A desiccated epigram.