Top 100 Truth To Power Quotes
#1. Intellectuals may like to think of themselves as people who "speak truth to power" but too often they are people who speak lies to gain power.
Thomas Sowell
#2. Our mission is to speak the truth to power. We send home that first rough draft of history. We can and do make a difference in exposing the horrors of war and especially the atrocities that befall civilians.
Marie Colvin
#3. Press freedom does not mean that the press should be above the law. While it's vital that a free press can tell truth to power, it is equally important that those in power can tell truth to the press.
David Cameron
#4. Not many people were speaking truth to power in the '80s. I had a really good time doing it - I found it gratifying. It was a joy to have an opportunity to say what you believed. It's challenging to do it in fiction, but I liked writing the novels. I liked writing 'Democracy' particularly.
Joan Didion
#5. The one thing I have never been afraid of is standing before important people and speaking my mind. I represent women who may never have the opportunity to go to the UN or meet with a president. I'm never afraid to speak truth to power.
Leymah Gbowee
#6. I think Michael Moore is an amazing man - an amazing, brave man. And I think people are probably going to start saying, 'Don't associate with Cindy Sheehan.' People who speak truth to power somehow are marginalized in this country.
Cindy Sheehan
#7. It is an author's most solemn obligation to honor truth. If the free and independent writer does not speak truth to power, who will?
Edward Abbey
#8. I've done truth to power all my life. It's got me into trouble, but who cares?
George Lois
#9. The time-honored role of the artist [is] to speak truth to power.
Salman Rushdie
#10. A lot of publishers have close relationships with people in power. So the press, which used to speak truth to power, doesn't. The big result of that has been the erosion of trust.
Craig Newmark
#11. To speak truth to power is not a particularly honorable vocation.
Noam Chomsky
#13. One of the flabby lines you hear sometimes is, 'Speak truth to power'. Power knows the truth. It's speaking the truth to yourself that's the challenge.
Barry Sanders
#14. I know everybody wants humor to be subversive and speak truth to power. I don't think power's been listening, incidentally.
Robert Mankoff
#15. When a woman has the opportunity to speak truth to power, it's important that she does, even if it's just trying to get a crosswalk in her neighborhood. That's how social change happens!
Kirsten Gillibrand
#16. Babes crying in the wilderness know that the world already has plenty of terrifying noise, but there aren't enough clear voices to smooth our troubled journey through the darkness ... only a few can speak truth to power.
Thomas H. Cook
#17. I will never shrink from speaking truth to power,
Elizabeth May
#18. When I discovered Gil Scott-Heron, I discovered a musical hero, a man who spoke baritone truth to power over jazzy funk at a time when funky music was primarily about shake, shake, shaking your booty.
Will Hermes
#19. The job of the press is to speak truth to power. And yet, for doing our job, we are persecuted. I say that these aggressive and illegal tactics to silence us - inventing arbitrary legal interpretations, over-zealous charges and disproportionate sentences - must not be permitted to succeed.
Sara Harrison
#20. It's supposed to feel good to throw a brick at the right people. There is a long tradition of naming and ridiculing and shaming and calling the villains what they are. Usually it was the artistocracy of the day and satire was the only way to speak truth to power.
John Cusack
#21. I think there's a real hunger for people speaking truth to power. Like, there's a little minority now that's saying you sounded like an asshole and a whiner. But that's just the player-hating fringe. I wouldn't worry about it.
Jonathan Franzen
#22. When we speak truth to power we are ignored at best and brutally suppressed at worst
Jeremy Hammond
#23. You can speak truth to power, ... but when you speak truth to weakness, weakness gets mad and queasy. It accuses you of its own insecurity."
"The Off Season: A Victorian Sequel
Jack Cady
#24. We must speak truth to power and confront ignorance with facts.
DaShanne Stokes
#25. If I had to reduce the responsibilities of a good follower to a single rule, it would be to speak truth to power.
Warren G. Bennis
#26. The role of the intellectual, so it is said, is to speak truth to power. Noam Chomsky has dismissed this pious tag on two grounds. For one thing, power knows the truth already; it is just busy trying to conceal it. For another, it is not those in power who need the truth, but those they oppress.
Terry Eagleton
#27. I do think the biggest problem newspapers have is loss of trust, and I feel that's a result of failure to speak truth to power.
Craig Newmark
#28. The thing about magic is everyone wants to own some, most so badly they're willing to beg and borrow and steal it from whomever they can. But the truth is unless you own your own magic you'll be destroyed by it; whether you lend its power to others or use what isn't yours doesn't matter.
Tiffany FitzHenry
#29. Life is meaningless until we learn to use the power of divine love and see the divine in every event and in every beauty.
Debasish Mridha
#30. Truth is not a right to be claimed, but a gift for those who are able to conquer it.
Luis Marques
#31. When we will learn to use the power of kindness and love we will fill the world with peace and happiness.
Debasish Mridha
#32. The whole 'Melrose' series is an attempt to tell the truth, and is based on the idea that there is some salutary or liberating power in telling the truth.
Edward St. Aubyn
#33. This tune goes manly.
Come, go we to the King. Our power is ready;
Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth
Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above
Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may.
The night is long that never finds the day.
They exit.
William Shakespeare
#34. I love the power of the musician who composes and performs. I envy their ability to put a nugget of truth in three minutes of sweat and emotional outpouring, colored entirely from their thoughts.
Kim Harrison
#35. To me art means power to sway people not with my words but with a mere picture. Art means expression, not my own but of the subjects. Art means truth; because when you see a picture you see all that is real. Art is exposure, showing things in a way they haven't been seen before.
CV
#36. A story is not a thing. A story is an act. It only exists in the brief moment of its telling. The question you must ask is what a story has the power to do. The truth of something you do is very different from the truth of something you know.
Matthew J. Kirby
#38. Whether a thought is spoken or not it is a real thing and it has power," Tuek said. "You might find the line between life and death among the Fremen to be too sharp and quick.
Frank Herbert
#40. Assuming is a form of giving away your power to another regarding an outcome that concerns you.
Molly Friedenfeld
#41. Let me tell you what the truth is ... I have learned one thing in life: there is no such thing as bad press. There is not. That's a fundamental truth. The more bad things said about you, the more power they give to you.
John McAfee
#42. ...if you were convinced that the world had forgotten how to think and teach, if you believed it had discarded the beauty of art and literature, if you thought it had crushed the power of truth, would you let that world educate your children?
Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera
#44. Renouncing the honors at which the world aims, I desire only to know the truth ... and to the maximum of power, I exhort all other men to do the same.
Plato
#45. I believe very confidently in the truth of Scripture, where it says that there is no authority, no power given to man except as given by God.
Steven Curtis Chapman
#46. Just as soon as any conviction of important truth becomes central and vital, there comes the desire to utter it a desire which is immediate and irresistible. Sacrifice is gladness, service is joy, when such an idea becomes a commanding power.
Richard Salter Storrs
#47. If there is any truth to my parenting the dreamwork movement, it comes from the power of the press.
Henry Reed
#48. The fearful seek to serve themselves by mastering the world, while the fearless seek to serve the world by mastering themselves.
Eric Micha'el Leventhal
#49. When you're with another actor and doing something very intense, often you pull them over to your side, or they pull you over to theirs. But if you stay in your own truth, you can play that perfect tennis match. I always want to bring my power, but not in a way that eliminates the whole game!
Giancarlo Esposito
#50. As a human being, we have unlimited power and unlimited abilities, we just have to look for it.
Debasish Mridha
#51. Each time a woman has the courage to act and share her truth, she plants wonderful seeds. Each such seed offers freedom and power to those around her, and in this way we bring the world closer together and closer to peace.
Jodie Evans
#52. You must wake up to the truth that whoever you are, that whatever you have or think you do not have, you are perfect in the here and now. Unless you can accept yourself, you will never be satisfied with anything, because it all begins with yourself.
Stephen Richards
#53. Lies erase. Lies are power. Power to be had by you. Truth is relative, no? Power defeats truth, paper, scissors. Are you faux real?
David David Katzman
#54. Never underestimate the power of fiction to tell the truth.
Leslie Feinberg
#55. Alas, alas, that ever love was sin! I ever followed natural inclination Under the power of my constellation And was unable to deny, in truth, My chamber of Venus to a likely youth.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#56. When I am thinking of love or express love, I am happy, when I am happy, I have more power to love.
Debasish Mridha
#57. Self-realization means to know truth through yourself, and not through others. By seeking God first, through Self-realization, all things-strength, power, prosperity, wisdom, health, and immortality-will be added unto you.
Paramahansa Yogananda
#58. All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.
Friedrich Nietzsche
#59. Every thought has the power to spread its effects on other minds as a wave can spread all over the ocean.
Debasish Mridha
#60. In truth, a State whose society is not sovereign is no sovereign State at all. Such is the case when a society has no chance to decide the common good, and when it has been denied the basic right to share in power and responsibility
Pope John Paul II
#61. The truth does not require a majority to prevail, ladies and gentlemen. The truth is its own power. The truth will out. Never forget that.
Rush Limbaugh
#62. The most hateful grief of all human griefs is this, to have knowledge of the truth but no power over the event.
Luis Carlos Montalvan
#63. This is the way to cultivate courage: First, by standing firm on some conscientious principle, some law of duty. Next, by being faithful to truth and right on small occasions and common events. Third, by trusting in God for help and power.
James Freeman Clarke
#64. Discernment is a power of the understanding in which few excel. Is not that owing to its connection with impartiality and truth? for are not prejudice and partiality blind?
Sir Fulke Greville
#65. Take back your power! I wish you the wisdom to realize that the problem isn't that they keep lying to you; it's that you keep believing them.
Steve Maraboli
#67. There is no man more dangerous, in a position of power, than he who refuses to accept as a working truth the idea that all a man does should make for rightness and soundness, that even the fixing of a tariff rate must be moral.
Ida Tarbell
#68. There is one thing, and only one thing, in which it is granted to you to be free in life, all else being beyond your power: that is to recognize and profess the truth.
Leo Tolstoy
#69. We're all here to live a fabulous life ... a life of love, truth, and joy.We have the power to wake up to that. We have the power to say "I'm not just here to survive, I'm here to live the greatest life that can be lived".
Marci Shimoff
#70. He saw clearly the truth other men didn't. If you gave anyone the power to hurt you, soon enough, they were going to use it.
Jessica Bird
#71. The hero of my tale, whom I love with all the power of my soul, whom I have tried to portray in all his beauty, who has been, is, and will be beautiful, is Truth.
Leo Tolstoy
#72. Jesus was no cold Superman - he was more human than any of us. Entirely pure, unweakened by evil, he was loving and open to the core. His ardor, truth, sensitivity, power, capacity for joy and pain were unlimited, and everything that happened to him happened in the immeasurableness of his divinity.
Romano Guardini
#73. I believe that organized religion is an ornament to the truth, and that aesthetics are part of its power.
Andrew Solomon
#74. Our generation is lost to the truth of God, to the reality of divine revelation, to the content of God's will, to the power of His redemption, and to the authority of His Word. For this loss it is paying dearly in a swift relapse into paganism.
Carl F. H. Henry
#75. If we are going to stay a great power and I hope and pray we will we need the truth. We need to know what is going right and we need to know what is going wrong. There is no greater time than now.
Chuck Schumer
#76. When you think on the powerful truths of Scripture, God uses His Word to change your way of thinking.
Elizabeth George
#77. Face your fears by remembering the power of God's cleaning truth. To change the way you are, change the way you think.
Craig Groeschel
#78. The mind is the source of infinite power; to find it we have to mine it.
Debasish Mridha
#79. A higher power does exist. The forces of day-to-day reality seem to take hold and become the truth for you, yet truth is not seen with the eyes or heard with the ears. It is felt as the peace in your heart and professes itself with health and well being.
Shaman Elizabeth Herrera
#80. The gift of mental power comes from God, Divine Being, and if we concentrate our minds on that truth, we become in tune with this great power. My Mother had taught me to seek all truth in the Bible.
Nikola Tesla
#81. A worthy woman has the power to rise above the limitations and expectations of others and live her authentic truth.
Shannon Tanner
#82. Power does not willingly give up its place to truth.
Kate Horsley
#83. It can be sad how time may change things in our lives, yet let us not forget we always maintain the power to choose whether or not to be happy about the changes it brings.
Mark W. Boyer
#84. In his time on earth, he'd learned one truth above all else when it came to power - those who lost it usually didn't see it vanishing until it was already gone.
Dennis Lehane
#85. Truth! why shall every wretch of letters Dare to speak truth against his betters! Let ragged virtue stand aloof, Nor mutter accents of reproof; Let ragged wit a mute become, When wealth and power would have her dumb.
Charles Churchill
#86. As long as we still draw breath, we each have the power to bring change into the world.
Simon Boylan
#87. The proud cannot accept the authority of God giving direction to their lives. (See Helaman 12:6.) They pit their perceptions of truth against God's great knowledge, their abilities versus God's priesthood power, and their accomplishments against His mighty works.
Ezra Taft Benson
#88. I think Bush has a very selfish, arrogant point of view. I think he is interested in power, I think he believes his truth is the only truth, and that he will do what he wants to do despite the people.
Harry Belafonte
#89. He can switch from one view to another with frightening ease. I think it is a sign of being accustomed to such power that the truth does not matter because you cannot be contradicted.
Anna Funder
#90. Truth is Evidence of Love. And, Nothing Can Stop the Power of Trusting and Loving Unconditionally.
Amaka Imani Nkosazana
#91. It is man's vision of a world fit for rational, civilized humanity which leads him to dare and to suffer to build societies free from want and fear. Concepts such as truth, justice and compassion cannot be dismissed as trite when these are often the only bulwarks which stand against ruthless power.
Aung San Suu Kyi
#92. But Jesus also wanted to demonstrate that a convincing argument rarely results in a changed heart. Hearts aren't transformed through well-rehearsed speeches; they're transformed when they see the truth and power of God demonstrated through a humble man or woman of God.
Tri Robinson
#93. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourslef or to gossip about others. Use your power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
Miguel Ruiz
#94. There is no man on this earth that has the right to tell you how beautiful you are, for no words we use has enough power to tell that truth. Your beauty can only be describe by the heavens above in a language none of us know.
Vincent Edwards
#95. More than anything else in the universe, more than the power to dictate law at Taranoke, more than the knowledge of the count of stars in the sky, Baru wanted in that moment to speak the truth.
But she had no tongue for it. She had burnt all her truth away. Alloyed it into the machine
Seth Dickinson
#96. If everyone realized this truth about their own inherent power to create and to attract whatever they desired, not everyone would want to be the president of a country, not everyone would want to live on that mansion on the hill, and not everyone would want the same things you would.
Stephen Richards
#97. Knowlede is power and Absolute Knowledge is Absolute Power or the Power of Truth, which is constantly shaping events and circumstances to reveal the errors in our beliefs.
Matthew A. Petti
#98. Hinduism is a living organism. One and indivisible at the root, it has grown into a vast tree with innumerable branches. Knowledge is limitless and so also the application of truth. Everyday we add to our knowledge of the power of Atman (soul) and we shall keep on doing so.
Mahatma Gandhi
#99. Peace and friendship are an amiable thing among men. They be so indeed, and we ought to seek them to the uttermost of our power. But yet for all that, we must set such store by God's truth, that if all the world should be set on fire for the maintenance thereof, we should not stick at it.
John Calvin
#100. But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe ... that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market ... That at any rate is the theory of our constitution.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
