Clarence Darrow Quotes

Speak nothing but the truth, and you'll soon be considered dangerous.

The sneakiest form of literary subtlety, in a corrupt society, is to speak the plain truth. The critics will not understand you; the public will not believe you; your fellow writers will shake their heads. Laughter, praise, honors, money, and the love of beautiful girls will be your only reward.

I need you to do more than survive. As writers, as revolutionaries, tell the truth, your truth in your own way. Do not buy into their system of censorship, imagining that if you drop this character or hide that emotion, you can slide through their blockades. Do not eat your heart out in the hope of pleasing them.

If art, all art, is concerned with truth, then a society in denial will not find much use for it.

Why do we not hear the truth? Because we do not speak it.

I'm not scared about saying what I think.

Truth is the silliest thing under the sun. Try to get a living by the Truth and go to the Soup Societies. Heavens! Let any clergyman try to preach the Truth from its very stronghold, the pulpit, and they would ride him out of his church on his own pulpit bannister.

Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

To tell the truth is revolutionary.

If I were to say what I really think I would be arrested or shut away in a lunatic asylum. Come on, I am sure that it would be the same for everyone.

It's a repressive society where you can't be horrible, I'm not horrible, they made me horrible, I'm just honest.

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.

It seems, by today's standards, that it's better to seek approval than to tell the truth. It's better to utter sweet nothings than to boldly say something of substance.

It feels so good to tell the truth.

I feel the weight of just telling the truth. There really is no weight to telling the truth. It's a little scary sometimes, but if you tell the truth, you don't have to be looking over your shoulder.

George Carlin is kind of my template now because George Carlin before was straight laced regular comic and he had short hair, a tie, suit, nightclub guy. Then he said screw it, let his hair grow, just started telling what he thought was the truth. So that's what I'm trying to do.

It's a weird thing about the truth: It protects you. What really makes you vulnerable is when you're lying because you're going to get caught. When you tell the truth, there's a strange relief that comes.

The truth will make you free.

He that would speak the truth must have one foot in the stirrup.

Truth, they say, is but too often in difficulty, but is never finally suppressed.

We must know what we think and speak out, even at the risk of unpopularity.

I'm a writer. My job is to speak what - that which I think is true. If that bridges the gap, that's good. If it doesn't, that's too bad.

The risk of being honest can lead to people ostracizing you. It's easier to cling to the persona, the stage, the reputation that people want to see.

As a writer, I think the greatest danger would be self-censorship.

If you're going to be transparent, you're going to have to let the music come that wants to come.