Nightshade, or Bitter-sweet.... Truth.
Reading edition
According to the belief of the ancients, Truth was the mother of Virtue, the daughter of Time, and queen of the world. It is a frequent saying, that Truth lies at the bottom of a well, and that she always mingles some bitterness with her sweet blessings; and we have chosen for her emblem a plant which, like her, delights in the shade, and is evergreen. The Nightshade is the only plant in England which loses and reproduces its leaves twice a year.
Truth, crushed to earth will rise again, The eternal years of God are hers; But Error, wounded, writhes with pain, And dies among her worshippers. Bryant.
The pure deep sky above may figure Truth; Though mists and clouds may long obscure its face, Gaze with patience, and ere long they’ll pass. Peerbold.
’Tis not enough your counsel shall be true; Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do. Men must be taught as if you taught them not, And things unknown proposed as things forgot. Without good breeding, truth is disapproved; That only makes superior sense beloved. Pope.
Truth needs no flowers of speech. Pope.
When fiction rises pleasing to the eye, Men will believe, because they love the lie; But truth herself, if clouded with a frown, Must have some solemn proofs to pass her down. Churchill.
All truth is precious, if not all divine, And what dilates the powers must needs refine. Cowper.
Verily there is nothing so false, that a sparkle of truth is not in it. Tupper.
This above all, to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Shakspeare.
What is truth?—a staff rejected. Wordsworth.
It is a weary and a bitter task Back from the lip the burning word to keep, And to shut out heaven’s air with falsehood’s mask, And in the dark urn of the soul to heap Indignant feelings—making e’en of thought A buried treasure. Mrs. Hemans.