Truth has such a face and such a mien,

As to be loved needs only to be seen.

John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther (1687)

I won’t try to define truth, for no one can. Call it a value, if you like. If so, it is a universal one. ‘We have an idea of truth, invincible to all scepticism,’ wrote French mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher Blaise Pascal. Or, as Shakespeare put it in more homely language, ‘Truth is truth, to the end of reckoning.’

Truth – the truth of the content or material, which becomes the common focus of attention – is immensely important in communication. It is the star that every good communicator steers by. You can command all the media, you can know all the tricks and techniques in the textbooks on communication skills, but if what you are saying is a lie in some degree, shape or form, it all adds up to nothing. Why? Because as people we are naturally oriented towards truth, goodness and beauty.

If you do manage to say something that is true, whatever the context or the level, you have a great advantage on your side. Truth communicates of its own accord. You will have to dress up a lie, disguise the truth, garnish it with bribes and incentives, in order to get it swallowed by your audience. Some politicians become experts in this black art. The truth, however, requires no such presentation. It speaks for itself.