Thomas R. Marshall Quotes

I don't aim to offend.

Being politically correct means saying what's polite rather than what's accurate. I like to be accurate.

You may tell a man thou art a fiend, but not your nose wants blowing; to him alone who can bear a thing of that kind, you may tell all.

I have no intention of offending somebody who writes a weekly column.

Australian women tend to tell it like it is - even if it's the brutal, honest truth. I think American women usually break it to you a little easier. There's a softer side to them.

We don't like offending anyone.

I do not want to insult anyone with my act and am very careful about it.

It's very difficult to be right about something without hurting someone with it.

In my experience tact is usually worse than the brutalities of truth.

Politeness is half good manners and half good lying.

I was never the diplomatic diplomat.

Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty; inaccuracy, of dishonesty.

It is more comfortable for me, in the long run, to be rude than polite.

I am not concerned with truth, nor with conventional notions of what is beautiful.

Accuracy of statement is one of the first elements of truth; inaccuracy is a near kin to falsehood.

Women want honesty but sometimes get upset if you are honest, so you need to know when to be honest.

I will not be misquoted!

'Honesty' in social life is often used as a cover for rudeness. But there is quite a difference between being candid in what you're talking about, and people voicing their insulting opinions under the name of honesty.

I tell it like it is, but I don't voice my opinion unless it's asked for.

I think the thing I had to be careful about while writing a book was not to say anything that was revealing about other people that they would be uncomfortable with. I didn't want to make people angry - that's a real risk.

In nonfiction, you have that limitation, that constraint, of telling the truth.

Fact-checking doesn't exist primarily because some of us are liars and cheats. It exists because writers will be writers, much as they may mean to be historians.

Don't flatter yourselves that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. On the contrary, the nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become.

Because what I say from that podium has got to be accurate, and I'm the only one who's going to be held liable if it's not accurate.

Writers don't have to keep themselves honest. They have to keep themselves accurate.