Truth is the highest thing that man may keep.
_The Frankeleines Tale_. CHAUCER.
But truths on which depends our main concern,
That 't is our shame and misery not to learn,
Shine by the side of every path we tread
With such a lustre he that runs may read.
_Tirocinium_. W. COWPER.
For truth has such a face and such a mien,
As to be loved needs only to be seen.
_The Hind and Panther_. J. DRYDEN.
And simple truth miscalled simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill.
_Sonnet LXVI_. SHAKESPEARE.
The firste vertue, gone, if thou wilt lere,
Is to restreine, and kepen wel thy tonge.
_The Manciples Tale_. CHAUCER.
'T is strange--but true; for truth is always strange:
Stranger than fiction.
_Don Juan, Canto XIV_. LORD BYRON.
But what is truth? 'T was Pilate's question put
To Truth itself, that deigned him no reply.
_The. Task, Bk. III_. W. COWPER.
The sages say, Dame Truth delights to dwell
(Strange mansion!) in the bottom of a well:
Questions are then the windlass and the rope
That pull the grave old Gentlewoman up,
_Birthday Ode_. J. WOLCOTT _(Peter Pindar)_.
Get but the truth once uttered, and 't is like
A star new-born that drops into its place
And which, once circling in its placid round,
Not all the tumult of the earth can shake.
_Glance Behind the Curtain_. J.R. LOWELL.