The truth that survives is simply the lie that is pleasantest to believe

I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.

The truth is that the average schoolmaster, on all the lower levels, is and always must be essentially and next door to an idiot, for how can one imagine an intelligent man engaging in so puerile an avocation?

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.

It is a peculiarity of the American mind that it regards any excursion into the truth as an adventure into cynicism

The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.