Sherlock Holmes, in The Sign of Four, ch. If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor. The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons. The truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is. One lie does not cost you one truth, but the truth.
Truth is tough.
The Professor at the Breakfast Table, ch. Time, whose tooth gnaws away everything else, is powerless against truth. Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. The astronomer, in The History of Rasselas, ch. For those to whom much is given, much is required.