Truth & honesty quotes, explained

A summary of Voltaire's attitude written by an English biographer in 1906. She later explained that she never meant it as a quotation.

A witty push to be authentic. It is not found anywhere in Wilde's works; the earliest known exact match is anonymous and from 1999, a century after his death.

The urn tells us that beauty and truth are the same thing, and that this is the only wisdom people need. Whether Keats himself believed it, or is letting the urn speak for itself, is still debated.

Latin for “You too, Brutus?” In Shakespeare's play these are Caesar's dying words when he sees his friend Brutus among his killers. The phrase now means shock at being betrayed by someone you trusted.

Einstein rejected the idea that quantum mechanics is fundamentally random. “God” was his way of talking about the laws of nature, not a personal God.

The popular summary of Socrates' wisdom: he was wiser than others only because he knew the limits of his knowledge. The exact phrase is a later compression of what Plato wrote.

Descartes doubted everything he could, and found one thing he could not doubt: that he was doubting, and therefore thinking, and therefore existed.

Telemachus, whose father Odysseus left for war when he was a baby, says he has only his mother's word for who his father is. No child can be completely sure.

A rough, practical guide based on experience rather than exact measurement or theory.

Watching a play, Queen Gertrude says the actress playing a queen promises too much love and loyalty to be believed. “Protest” meant “vow,” not “object.”

At his trial, Socrates refuses to stop questioning people about how to live, saying a life without such questioning is not worth living for a human being. He chose death over silence.

Polonius's parting advice to his son Laertes: be honest with yourself, and you will be honest with others. It is good advice from a character who rarely follows it.

Jobs urges graduates to follow their own judgment rather than other people's expectations, because life is short. He spoke from the experience of a recent cancer diagnosis.