QuoteProject
The tongue can conceal the truth, but the eyes never! You're asked an unexpected question, you don't even flinch, it takes just a second to get yourself under control, you know just what you have to say to hide the truth, and you speak very convincingly, and nothing in your face twitches to give you away. But the truth, alas, has been disturbed by the question, and it rises up from the depths of your soul to flicker in your eyes and all is lost.
Mikhail Bulgakov
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that while one can verbally disguise the truth, true emotions and truths are often revealed through the eyes.

Mikhail Bulgakov highlights the inherent tension between spoken deception and the unspoken truth that can be seen in one's eyes. No matter how convincingly one can articulate a lie or conceal the truth through words, the eyes can betray a person's true feelings and intentions due to the deep emotional connection they hold. This quote illustrates the struggle between the desire to maintain a facade and the involuntary nature of genuine emotional expression.

Themes

TruthEyesDeceptionHonestyEmotion

In practice

Example use cases

During a public speaking event where the topic of honesty is being discussed.

More from Mikhail Bulgakov

But would you kindly ponder this question: What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But shadows also come from trees and living beings. Do you want to strip the earth of all trees and living things just because of your fantasy of enjoying naked light? You're stupid.
Mikhail BulgakovRead
just like a murderer jumps of nowhere in an ally, love jumped out in front of us and struck us both at once
Mikhail BulgakovRead
Well, as everyone knows, once witchcraft gets started, there's no stopping it.
Mikhail BulgakovRead
Remove the document—and you remove the man.
Mikhail BulgakovRead
Literature has become my life.
Mikhail BulgakovRead
The tongue may hide the truth but the eyes—never!
Mikhail BulgakovRead

Similar quotes

[The Bill of Rights is] designed to protect individuals and minorities against the tyranny of the majority, but it's also designed to protect the people against bureaucracy, against the government.
Laurence TribeRead
If we must accept fate we are not less compelled to affirm liberty, the significance of the individual, the grandeur of duty, the power of character.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
What is the right of the huntsman to the forest of a thousand miles over which he has accidentally ranged in quest of prey? Shall the fields and vallies, which a beneficent God has formed to teem with the life of innumerable multitudes, be condemned to everlasting barrenness?
John Quincy AdamsRead
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances.
George Bernard ShawRead
Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued." "It is not living that matters, but living rightly. The unexamined life is not worth living.
SocratesRead
Intention is not something you do, but rather a force that exists in the universe as an invisible field of energy, a power that can carry us.
Wayne DyerRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.