16 Poems About Truth

By Catherine Pulsifer, Updated August 29, 2024


Poems Of Encouragement    /  

1. Speak The Truth
     Poet: Catharine Ryder
   
   Speak the truth at all times!
   No matter what is said,
   To provoke prevarication
   By those through envy led.
   
   Speak the truth at all times,
   True confidence inspire
   In hearts of love that cherish worth,
   And honesty admire.
   
   Speak the truth at all times!
   A noble, worthy plan
   To build your reputation on —
   It is, my fellow man.







2. Days Of Truth
   Poet: J.J. Thorne
   
   Let our days be of truth,
   Truth our pleasure depends,
   It makes for us
   A world of friends.
   
   A pious love in humane hearts,
   Death only can depart.
   It lives in unity and preserves
   A good conscience and honest heart.
   
   If our conscience be our guide,
   We will do our part,
   All that lies in our power,
   Until nature opens our heart.
   
   If we live and deal in harmony
   It will make friends to take our part,
   If in our hearts we place the truth,
   We will die with an honest heart.




Poems about Honesty



3. Best Practice
   Poet: Catherine Pulsifer
   
   The truth is always the best practice
   As the truth always comes to the surface.
   In all your dealings, whether business or personal,
   The truth is the most rational.
   
   A little white lie can grow and grow
   Until the truth no longer shows.
   When you tell the truth you never have to worry
   About being caught and having to ask for mercy.




4. The Only Way
   Poet: Samatha Anne Marie Lynch, ©2020
   
   Without the truth, relationships die
   There is nothing any worse than a little white lie.
   Speaking the truth may
   Be uncomfortable in a way
   
   So whatever you do
   Be honest and true
   Cause at the end of the day
   It is the only way!




Poems About Character



5. Turn
   Poet: Maria J Dodge
   
   Turn while yet the sun is shining,
   Turn to honor and to truth;
   
   Turn before the day's declining;
   Seek the soul's more perfect growth.
   
   Turn unto the paths of duty,
   Left for you by those of old;
   
   Ye shall find a world of beauty,
   Better far than paltry gold.




6. Life Stanzas
   Poet: Robert Browning
   
   Truth is within ourselves: it takes no rise
   From outward things, whate'er you may believe.
   There is an inmost centre in us all.
   Where Truth abides in fulness. . . .
   
   And, to know
   Rather consists in opening out a way
   Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape,
   Than in eflecting entry for a light
   Supposed to be without.
   
   I count life just a stuff
   To try the soul's strength on, educe the man.
   Who keeps one end in view makes all things serve.
   Truth is the strong thing.
   Let man's life be true.




Positive Poems



7. Truth Is The Sun
   Poet: Samuel Valentine Cole
   
   
   The truth is large; no man hath seen the whole;
   Larger than words; it brooks not the control
   Of argument and of distinctions nice;
   No age or creed can hold it, no device
   Of speech or language; ay, no syllogism;
   Truth is the sun, and reason is the prism
   You lift before it; whence the light is thrown
   In various colors; each man takes his own.
   If this man takes the red, as you the blue,
   Is yours the whole, and is his truth not true?
   Spirit is truth, howe'er the colors fall;
   The fact comes back to spirit, after all.




Truth Quotes



8. Truth
   Poet: Unknown
   
   Boy, at all times tell the truth,
   Let no lie defile thy mouth;
   If thou'rt wrong, be still the same —
   Speak the truth and bear the blame.
   
   Truth is honest, truth is sure;
   Truth is strong, and must endure;
   Falsehood lasts a single day,
   Then it vanishes away.
   
   Boy, at all times tell the truth,
   Let no lie defile thy mouth;
   Truth is steadfast, sure, and fast —
   Certain to prevail at last.




Poems About Justice



9. An Easy World
   Poet: Edgar A. Guest
   
   It's an easy world to live in if you choose to make it so;
   You never need to suffer, save the griefs that all must know;
   If you'll stay upon the level and will 'do the best you can
   You will never lack the friendship of a kindly fellow man.
   
   Life's an easy road to travel if you'll only walk it straight;
   There are many here to help you in your little bouts with fate;
   When the clouds begin to gather and your hopes begin to fade,
   If you've only toiled in honor you won't have to call for aid.
   
   But if you've bartered friendship and the faith on which it rests
   For a temporary winning; if you've cheated in the tests.
   If with promises you've broken, you have chilled the hearts of men;
   It is vain to look for friendship for it will not come again.
   
   Oh, the world is full of kindness, thronged with men who want to be
   Of some service to their neighbors and they'll run to you or me
   When we're needing their assistance if we've lived upon the square,
   But they'll spurn us in our trouble if we've always been unfair.
   
   It's an easy world to live in; all you really need to do
   Is the decent thing and proper and then friends will flock to you;
   But let dishonor trail you and some stormy day you'll find
   To your heart's supremest sorrow that you've made the world unkind.




10. Light Come, Light Go
    Poet: Unknown
    
    That truth which little costs is loosely held,
    We think of it as something once beheld;
    Like silver it may shine upon our crest,
    Make us look fine when we are gaily dress'd,
    But time will wear it off.
    
    The truths for which we fight we hold for life,
    They stir our faith and heal sin's bitter strife;
    Like living bread they feed the hungry soul,
    Thus give us strength and nerve with self-control:




Motivational Poems



11. Speak The Truth
    Poet: Unknown
    
    Speak the truth!
    Speak it boldy, never fear;
    Speak it so that all may hear;
    In the end it shall appear,
    Truth is best in age and youth.
    Speak the truth!
    
    Speak the truth!
    Truth is beautiful and brave,
    Strong to bless and strong to save;
    Falsehood is a coward knave;
    From it turn thy steps in youth -
    Follow truth! O may such truth be ours!




12. Lie And Truth
    Poet: James Henry Thomas
    
    ''Good morning, Lie" said Truth one day;
    ''Where are you going up this way?"
    Said Lie, "I'm going to dress like you,
    For something that I have in view."
    
    Said Truth, "My garment's white and pure,
    I know they'll not look well on you."
    Said Lie, "I'll paint my face like yours.
    The other parts I'll not expose."
    
    Said Truth, "You cannot look like me,
    You'll be condemned, where'er you be."
    "I'll do my best," said Lie to Truth,
    "To look like you and fool some youth."
    
    Said Truth, "The parents train the youth
    So when they're grown, they know I'm Truth.
    Said Lie, "I'll grow as strong as they.
    And entice them to go my way."
    
    "Well, Lie," said Truth, "what would you do
    If I'd wash all the paint off you?"
    Said Lie, "I'd paint my face again;
    They'd think that you and I are kin."
    
    Said Truth, "This would be wrong of you.
    To deceive them who would be true."
    Said Lie, 'They always make their choice;
    When they choose me I do rejoice."
    
    *The tongue that tells a lie," said Truth,
    ''Is building up the devil's booth."
    "The man who owns the tongue," said Lie,
    "Gets wealth and honor by and by."
    
    Said Truth, "His wealth can't save his soul.
    Nor make his sinful body whole."
    "Ah well," said Lie, "You cannot see
    The side of it that interests me."
    
    So Lie and Truth together went;
    On different missions they were sent.
    One went to break the Lord's command,
    The other took a moral stand.




Poems About Life



13. A Life Of Harmony
    Poet: J.J. Thorne
    
    Truth makes a life of harmony,
    It rewards us when we die,
    It serves as an epitaph on our tomb,
    A life above a lie.
    
    Truth guards and preserves our bodies on earth.
    Peace to the soul it does apply,
    A home of joy, peace and rest,
    Unmolested by a lie.
    
    If truth we plant in our breast,
    It will never make a sigh,
    Our hearts will condemn with guilt,
    If we tell a lie.
    
    Truth unites a love in our hearts,
    Though strangers may be you and I,
    If we meet with truth the rose of honor
    It blooms with purity and blasts a lie.
    
    Truthful lips and honest hearts
    The devil has to deny,
    But happy is he when he
    Can make us tell a lie.
    
    Truth is a holy spirit,
    A blessing from above the sky.
    'Tis satan and his evil spirit
    That teaches us a lie.




Christian Poems



14. Lying
    by Henry H. Crane
    
    There are numerous ways of lying -
    all of them bad, some worse.
    
    We can lie by saying nothing.
    When silence gives consent to something false,
    we must speak up or share the falsehood.
    
    We can lie with looks, gestures, attitudes.
    There is the innocent appearance of the experienced deceiver,
    the ostentatious salute of the traitor, the wise pose of the ignoramus.
    
    We can even lie by telling the truth - that is,
    by telling a piece of the truth instead of
    the whole truth, thus giving a wrong impression.




15. Truth
    Poet: Unknown
    
    Don't borrow a creed from other people,
    Nor hang most faith on the stoutest steeple.
    Look up for your law, but oh! look higher
    Than the hands on any human spire.
    If ten think alike, and you think alone,
    That never proves 'tis ten to one
    They are right, you wrong; for truth, you see,
    Is not a thing of majority.
    It never can make you false, them true,
    That there's more of them than there is of you:
    If your touch is on Truth's garment's hem,
    There is more of you than a world of them.




16. Great Truths
    Poet: Horatius Bonar
    
    Great truths are dearly bought. The common truth,
    Such as men give and take from day to day,
    Comes in the common walk of easy life,
    Blown by the careless wind across our way.
    
    Great truths are greatly won, not found by chance,
    Nor wafted on the breath of summer dream;
    But grasped in the great struggle of the soul
    Hard buffeting with adverse wind and stream.
    
    But in the day of conflict, fear and grief.
    When the strong hand of God, put forth in might.
    Plows up the subsoil of the stagnant heart
    And brings the imprisoned truth-seed to the light,
    
    Wrung from the troubled spirit in hard hours
    Of weakness, solitude, perchance of pain,
    Truth springs like harvest from the well-plowed field.
    And the soul feels it has not wept in vain.