Richard Russo Quotes

If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't I'll just respond cleverly.

There's just no substitute for the truth.

You can't really pretend something is rosier than it is and expect people to buy it.

Heaven lies about us in our infancy and the world begins lying about us pretty soon afterward.

I always divide people into two groups. Those who live by what they know to be a lie, and those who live by what they believe, falsely, to be the truth.

People like to say that the conflict is between good and evil. The real conflict is between truth and lies.

Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.

The truth cannot be deceptive, and one who sees it cannot be deceived.

Truth: An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance …

Humanity appreciates truth about as much as a squirrel appreciates silver.

Lying and art are very allied. But after you lie, you get to the truth.

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

Yeah, if anyone tries to tell you 60 is the new 40... don't believe them.

The truth, huh? No one wants to hear the truth. The truth is never sexy. But you... You are too goddamned sexy to be real. -Christian to Lissa

Rhetoric is no substitute for reality.

Bitter though it may be to many, Cadfael concluded, there is no substitute for truth, in this or any case.

More often than not, things and people are as they appear.

... if a man really and truly believed that black was white, you might advise him to see an oculist, but you mustn't call him a liar.

Never trust a mirror,' his mother had told him. 'They never tell the truth unless you make them.

If you search for truthfulness, you might as well be blind.

Of course a picture can lie, but only if you are not honest with yourself.

Truth is too simple for us: we do not like those who unmask our illusions.

You've learned that every good lie is threaded with truth and every accepted truth leaks lies.

To an incompetent judge I must not lie, but I may be silent; to a competent I must answer.

Truth, like light, is blinding. Lies, on the other hand, are a beautiful dusk, which enhances the value of each object.