Truth - Quotes from Science Fiction

A lot of quotations carefully collected from a very big amount of books and divided by categories.

Have fun reading it, this is really interesting and breathtaking!

All truths are erroneous. This is the very essence of the dialectical process: today's truths become errors tomorrow.

- Yevgeny Zamiatin, ''On Literature, Revolution, Entropy, and Other Matters'' (1923), translated by Mirra Ginsburg (1970)

The inevitable mark of truth is - its cruelty.

- Yevgeny Zamiatin, We (1924), translated by Mirra Ginsburg (1972)

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

- Aldous Huxley, ''A Note on Dogma'' (1927)

The truth is paradoxical; but man's passion for rational coherence is even stronger than his love of truth.

- Aldous Huxley, ''A Note on Dogma'' (1927)

Truth is a hard deer to hunt. If you eat too much truth at once, you may die of the truth.

- Stephen Vincent Benet, ''By theWaters of Babylon'' (1937)

Truth is a dark and deceitful thing.

- Anthony Boucher, ''The Compleat Werewolf '' (1942)

Facts are ventriloquist's dummies. Sitting on a wise man's knee they may be made to utter words of wisdom; elsewhere, they say nothing, or talk nonsense, or indulge in sheer diabolism.

- Aldous Huxley, Time Must Have a Stop (1944)

It is easy for us to forget that science is the godchild of logic when we know that truth is older and simpler than either.

- Roger Dee, ''The Springbird'' (1953)

People think they love truth. They really love a comforting pack of lies.

- Doris Pitkin Buck, ''Two-Bit Oracle'' (1954)

Don approved of social lies, the kind that permitted people to live and work together without too much friction.

- Mildred Clingerman, ''TheWild Wood'' (1957)

People keep going. And they need lies to help them. Lies about abstract justice, and romantic love everlasting. The belief that right always triumphs. Even our concept of democracy may be a lie. Yet we cherish these lies and do our best to live by them. And maybe, little by little, our belief helps make these things come true.

- Robert Bloch, ''Word of Honor'' (1958)

Tomorrow, a new prince shall rule. Men of understanding, men of science shall stand behind his throne, and the universe will come to know his might. His name is Truth. His empire shall encompass the Earth. And the mastery of Man over the Earth shall be renewed.

- Walter M. Miller, Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959)

Men must fumble awhile with error to separate it from truth, I think - as long as they don't seize the error hungrily because it has a pleasanter taste.

- Walter M. Miller, Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959)

All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies.

- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Cat's Cradle (1963)

The steps Man takes across the heavens of his universe are as uncertain as those steps he takes across the rooms of his own life. And yet if he walks with an open mind, those steps must lead him eventually to that most perfect of all destinations, truth.

- William E. Bast, ''The Moonstone,'' episode of The Outer Limits (1964)

Respect for the truth comes close to being the basis for all morality.

- Frank Herbert, Dune (1965)

On the floor. Dead. Struck dead. Liar. All the lies that were her life. Dead on a floor.

- Harlan Ellison, ''Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes'' (1966)

A society adapts to fact, or doesn't survive.

- Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966)

''Everything is true,'' he said. ''Everything anybody has ever thought.''

- Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)

I'll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination.

- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)

One voice speaking truth is a greater force than fleets and armies, given time; plenty of time.

- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)

All truths find a use somewhere, sometime.

- Larry Niven, ''Not Long Before the End'' (1969)

Who is truewill breed true.

- Doris Pitkin Buck, ''The Giberel'' (1971)

In the end, the truth usually insists upon serving only the common good.

- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (1974)

She was used to hearing what sounded well, and figuring out later what it might really mean. Indeed, until she had met Lev at school, it had not occurred to her that anyone might prefer to speak a plain fact rather than a lie that sounded well.

- Ursula K. Le Guin, ''The Eye of the Heron'' (1978)

The truth will set us free. But freedom is cold, and empty, and frightening, and lies can often be warm and beautiful.

- George R. R. Martin, ''TheWay of Cross and Dragon'' (1979)

Although people talk appreciatively of honest speech they generally avoid it, and I myself have found scarcely any use for it at all.

- Suzy McKee Charnas, ''The Unicorn Tapestry'' (1980)

The final truth of all things is that there is no final truth! Truth is what's transitory! It's human life that is real!

- Paddy Chayefsky, Altered States (film, 1980)

I would like to say that it is a very great pleasure, honor and privilege for me to open this bridge, but I can't because my lying circuits are all out of commission. I hate and despise you all. I now declare this hapless cyberstructure open to the unthinking abuse of all who wantonly cross her.

- Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe, and Everything (1982)

A lie, for Weasel, was a mirror. It reflected truth turned the other way round.

- Lloyd Alexander, The Beggar Queen (1984)

Men like Alain lied so constantly, so passionately, that some basic distinction had been lost. They were artists in their own right, Andrea said, intent on restructuring reality.

- William Gibson, Count Zero (1986)

He had died of an overdose of truth.

- George Turner, Drowning Towers (1987)

The road to truth is long, and lined the entire way with annoying bastards.

- Alexander Jablokov, ''The Place of No Shadows'' (1990)

An untruth tends to become indistinguishable from the real thing, simply through the action of protective mimicry.

- Tom Holt, Ye Gods! (1992)

I'm not gonna give up. I can't give up. Not as long as the truth is out there.

- Chris Carter, ''The Erlenmeyer Flask,'' episode of The X-Files (1994)

The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head.

- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather (1996)

You're becoming more human all the time, Data . . . now you're learning how to lie.

- Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore, Star Trek: First Contact (film, 1996)

''The truth,'' Dumbledore sighed. ''It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.''

- J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1997)

We must scrape the flies from the headlamps of truth, then switch the fuckers to high beam.

- Steve Aylett, Atom (2000)

The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret.

- Terry Pratchett, The Truth (2000)