And yet what harm can there be
in presenting the truth with a laugh, as teachers sometimes give
their children biscuits to coax them into learning their ABC?[Quamquam ridentem dicere verum
quid vetat? ut pueris olim dant crustula blandi
doctores, elementa velint ut discere prima.]Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Satires [Saturae, Sermones], Book 1, # 1, “Qui fit, Mæcenas,” l. 24ff (1.1.24-26) (35 BC) [tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:Toyes may kepe and staye
Sumtimes the reeder very well, as those that teache in schooles,
With buttred bread, or featusse knacks will lewre the little fooles,
To learne a pace theyr A. B. C.
[tr. Drant (1567)]Though to blurt out a truth has never been
(In way of merriment) esteem'd a sin.
The flattering Master thus his Boys presents
With Cakes, to make them learn their Rudiments.
[tr. A. B.; ed. Brome (1666)]And mirth commends, and makes our Precepts take,
Thus Teachers bribe their Boys with Figs and Cake
To mind their books.
[tr. Creech (1684)]Yet may not truth in laughing guise be drest?
As masters fondly sooth their boys to read
With cakes and sweetmeats.
[tr. Francis (1747)]Albeit why may not truth in smiles be drest,
As gentle teachers lure the child to come
And learn his horn-book, with a sugar plum?
[tr. Howes (1845)]Though what hinders one being merry, while telling the truth? as good-natured teachers at first give cakes to their boys, that they may be willing to learn their first rudiments.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]Although what does prevent one telling truth in playful mood, as often tutors give their pupils cakes caressingly, to make them care to learn their ABC?
[tr. Millington (1870)]Though, for me,
Why truth may not be gay, I cannot see:
Just as, we know, judicious teachers coax
With sugar-plum or cake their little folks
To learn their alphabet.
[tr. Conington (1874)]What is to prevent one from telling truth as he laughs, even as teachers sometimes give cookies to children to coax them into learning their A B C?
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1926)]And yet -- there’s no law against telling the truth with a smile.
Smart teachers, for instance, give crunchy sweets to children
To make them learn their letters.
[tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]But tell me what law is violated if someone laughs
while speaking truth? You know how teachers sometimes give
their pupils little cakes, to help them learn their ABC’s.
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]Though why can’t one tell the truth
With a smile? Teachers coax children to love
Learning by giving them cookies.
[tr. Raffel (1983)]Although what's there to forbid one who is laughing,
from telling the truth? As loving teachers sometimes
hand out sweets to their pupils
so that they'll want to learn their ABC's.
[tr. Alexander (1999)]Though what bars us
from telling truths with a laugh, the way teachers
sow cookies and reap memorized alphabets?
[tr. Matthews (2002)]Though what stops one telling the truth
While smiling, as teachers often give children biscuits
To try and tempt them to learn their alphabet?
[tr. Kline (2015)]
Quotations about:
truth-telling
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Truth ensures trust, but not victory, or even happiness.
Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000) Novelist, poet, essayist, biographer
Human Voices, ch. 1 (1980)
(Source)
Writing of BBC News during World War 2.
MADRIGAL: One can lie. … But truth is more interesting!
Enid Bagnold (1889-1981) English writer
The Chalk Garden, Act 3 (1955)
Ellipses in original.
The plaque at the front of the courtroom, high on the wall, was permanent and yet its words were new each time Jack read them, read them half against his will, his eyes moving restlessly forward and up to them while testimony droned on: Conscience Speaks the Truth.
Yes, it is always the best policy to speak the truth — unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.
Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) English writer, humorist [Jerome Klapka Jerome]
Idler Magazine, “The Idler’s Club” column (1892-02)
(Source)
My daddy always told me to just do the best you knew how and tell the truth. He said there was nothin to set a man’s mind at ease like wakin up in the morning and not havin to decide who you were.
Cormac McCarthy (1933-2023) American novelist, playwright, screenwriter
No Country for Old Men (2007)
(Source)
The whole truth would be an infinite concatenation of mostly irrelevant facts, with an occasional dose of, in textspeak, “TMI,” too much information — when, for example, you ruin the case you were making against factory farming by going into such detail about how painful de-beaking is for chickens that your listener shuts you out and struggles to think about something else. So we do not tell the whole truth; we tell carefully crafted stories, and we do this even when our moral purpose is to tell the truth.
Justin E. H. Smith (b. 1972) American-Canadian professor of history and philosophy of science
Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason, ch. 8 (2019)
(Source)
