Truthful Language Quotes

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.

Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that's the whole art and joy of words.

When we name things correctly, we comprehend them correctly, without adding information or judgements that aren't there. Does someone bathe quickly? Don't say be bathes poorly, but quickly. Name the situation as it is, don't filter it through your judgments. Give your assent only to that which is actually true.

I want a language that speaks the truth.

Science gives us a powerful vocabulary, and it is impossible to produce a vocabulary with which one can only say nice things.

It's only words... unless they're true.

A lot of young people don't have a lot of faith in politicians. You can't depend on what they say. They talk in circles. They don't speak the kind of language that has truth to them. I'm speaking differently.

Morality in government begins with officials using words as honestly as possible to describe the truth.

For those of us who write, it is necessary to scrutinize not only the truth of what we speak, but the truth of that language by which we speak it.