“All truth wherever it is found belongs to us as Christians.” St. Justin Martyr (2nd century)

“What contradicts truth cannot be just.” St. Augustine (4th-5th centuries, Doctor of the Church)

“For it is our plain duty to preach and defend the truth in a straightforward way. Those who are to stumble must stumble, rather than that the heirs of grace should not hear. While we offend and alienate one man, we secure another; if we drive one man further the wrong way, we drive another further the right way. The cause of truth, the heavenly company of saints, gains on the whole more in one way than in the other.” St. John Henry Newman (19th century)

“Truth is one and indivisible, lasts for all eternity, and is not subject to the vicissitudes of time.” Pope St. Pius X (19th-20th centuries)

“Love the truth, show yourself as you are, without pretenses and fears…and if the truth causes you persecution, accept it, and if it causes you some torment, bear it. And if for the sake of truth you should sacrifice yourself and your life, be strong in your sacrifice.” St. Joseph Moscati (19th-20th centuries)

“The child’s mother teaches him to have a horror of falsehood; as years go by the grown man clearly perceives that truth is always our salvation, that compromise with the truth must at all times be rejected, and that in social relations a man’s honor is judged by his fidelity, at all times, to the truth.” Pope St. John XXIII (19th-20th centuries)

“…we are to be intolerant of false doctrine but sweetly tolerant toward those who hold it. The modern world is less inclined to dispute the second portion of the sentence than the first: nowadays there is a temper abroad which wishes us to give evil equal rights with good. It pleads with us that wrong ideas should have as great a circulation as right ones and that one point of view in religion is as apt to be true as another. This excessive broad-mindedness, however, is not extended to the fields outside of religion or morality; the most tolerant agnostic becomes dogmatic and a stickler for the truth if his grocer’s bill adds up to twice the sum it should. Nor do the city fathers encourage engineers to tamper with the laws of gravity, designing bridges to suit their personal prejudices without respect to the weight of steel. Reality – subject to laws we cannot repeal – is recognized in every physical-science classroom. Reality – subject to laws we cannot repeal – also prevails in the moral world in which man dwells. Truth is not our making ; it is God’s own. We do not have rights over it; it has rights over us.” Ven. Fulton Sheen (19th-20th centuries)

“In order to remain spiritually free men, we must live in truth. To live in truth means to bear witness to it to the outside world at all times and in all situations. The truth is unchangeable. It cannot be destroyed by any decree or law…Courageous witnessing to the truth leads directly to freedom. A man who witnesses to the truth can be free even though he might be in prison…If the truth becomes for us a value, worthy of suffering and risk, then we shall overcome fear – the direct reason for our enslavement.” Bl. Jerzy Popieluszko (20th century)

“A culture without truth does not safeguard freedom but puts it at risk. I have said this on a number of occasions: ‘The demands of truth and morality neither degrade nor abolish our freedom, but on the contrary enable freedom to exist and liberate it from its own inherent threats’. In this sense, the words of Christ remain decisive: ‘The truth will set you free’.” Pope St. John Paul II (20th-21st centuries)