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It is not in being rich that truth and justice would rejoice, but in being trusted and believed.
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“It is not in being rich that truth and justice would rejoice, but in being trusted and believed.”

Adam Smith

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Source
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Date
1759
Meaning

Meaning of “It is not in being rich that truth…”

The passage separates moral reputation from wealth: truthfulness and justice seek the confidence of other people rather than riches as their characteristic reward.

Source context

Where does it come from?

The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part III; this sentence immediately follows Smith’s contrast between humanity seeking love and industry receiving external success.

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HonestyIntegrityMoneyPhilosophyThought-Provoking Quotes That Invite ReflectionTrustTruth
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Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!
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“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!”

Walter Scott · Marmion · 1808
Meaning & context

Scott’s narrator condenses Marmion’s worsening predicament into a warning that one deception tends to require further concealment and creates increasingly complex consequences.

Source details

Marmion, Canto VI, stanza XVII, Project Gutenberg #4010, transcribed from the 1888 Cassell & Company edition. “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!” is the narrator’s moral comment as Marmion realizes that his own intrigue is closing around him. It remains narrative commentary inside Scott’s historical romance in verse rather than a standalone empirical rule.

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Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.
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“Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.”

Francis Bacon · Of Truth · 1625
Meaning & context

Bacon joins truth with charity and steadiness, presenting intellectual honesty as part of a well-ordered mind rather than a weapon for pride.

Source details

Francis Bacon, 'Of Truth,' essay I in the 1625 Essays; independently checked against the validated 1884 Works of Francis Bacon, Volume I scan leaf 139. The retained sentence closes Bacon's theological/philosophical truth discussion by linking charity, providence and truth; it is explicitly early-modern Christian-philosophical rhetoric, not clinical or scientific evidence.

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truth, in morals, has ever appeared to me the essence of the sublime; and, in taste, simplicity the only criterion of the beautiful.
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“truth, in morals, has ever appeared to me the essence of the sublime; and, in taste, simplicity the only criterion of the beautiful.”

Mary Wollstonecraft · A Vindication of the Rights of Men · 1790
Meaning & context

Wollstonecraft makes moral truth and aesthetic simplicity standards of seriousness, rejecting ornate politeness when it conceals what a writer actually believes.

Source details

A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening letter to Edmund Burke, second edition (1790); this sentence follows Wollstonecraft’s refusal to disguise her sentiments behind courtly politeness.

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And I would ask you to be thinking of the truth and not of Socrates: agree with me, if I seem to you to be speaking the truth; or if not, withstand me might and main, that I may not deceive you as well as myself in my enthusiasm, and like the bee, leave my sting in you before I die.
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“And I would ask you to be thinking of the truth and not of Socrates: agree with me, if I seem to you to be speaking the truth; or if not, withstand me might and main, that I may not deceive you as well as myself in my enthusiasm, and like the bee, leave my sting in you before I die.”

Plato · Phaedo · 4th century BCE
Voice: Dialogue speaker · Socrates
Meaning & context

Facing death, Socrates asks his friends to challenge the argument he is defending if they find it mistaken. His emphasis is on testing whether a claim is true rather than accepting it because of the speaker’s reputation, even when that speaker is himself. The appeal belongs to a debate, not a universal guarantee that his view of the soul is correct.

Source details

Phaedo, approximately Stephanus 91b–c, Socrates speaking to Simmias and Cebes after their objections to the arguments about the soul’s survival. He specifically asks them to contradict him if they think his reasoning is wrong. This is a complete sentence from Benjamin Jowett’s English translation, Project Gutenberg #1658, in the dialogue after the translator’s separate introduction. Socrates is a character and local speaker; do not attribute the sentence as a direct personal remark by Plato.

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Lying rides upon Debt’s back.
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“Lying rides upon Debt’s back.”

Benjamin Franklin · The Way to Wealth · 1758
Voice: Authorial persona / framed maxim · Poor Richard maxim, repeated through Father Abraham
Meaning & context

The compact maxim warns that unpaid obligations can create incentives for evasion, delay, or false promises when payment becomes difficult.

Source details

The Way to Wealth, debt-and-credit section; Project Gutenberg #43855. The line immediately reinforces Franklin’s warning about debt and truthfulness.

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