"There are few nudities so objectionable as the naked truth"
About this Quote
Truth gets sold as a moral vitamin, but Repplier reminds you it can also be an aesthetic offense. “There are few nudities so objectionable as the naked truth” lands because it flips a familiar virtue into something embarrassingly exposed, like a body under harsh lighting. The wit isn’t just in the metaphor; it’s in the social diagnosis. People don’t fear truth because it’s abstractly “hard.” They fear it because it strips away the flattering costume of motive, the curated story of self, the polite fictions that keep relationships and institutions from collapsing into open conflict.
Repplier, a late-19th/early-20th-century American essayist with a keen eye for manners, is writing in a culture that prized respectability and “good taste” while industrial capitalism, mass politics, and tabloid journalism were making private life more public. In that world, truth isn’t merely a fact; it’s a breach of decorum. Calling it “naked” suggests indecency, but also vulnerability: nakedness is what you are when you can’t manage impressions anymore.
The subtext is quietly cynical about our stated ideals. We claim to want honesty, transparency, authenticity. Repplier implies we mostly want them in moderation, with strategic drapery. A confession that arrives too cleanly, too directly, threatens the social order because it removes the face-saving compromises that let people coexist. The line also needles the sanctimony of truth-tellers: insisting on “naked truth” can be less bravery than exhibitionism, a way to wield candor as power while pretending it’s virtue.
Repplier, a late-19th/early-20th-century American essayist with a keen eye for manners, is writing in a culture that prized respectability and “good taste” while industrial capitalism, mass politics, and tabloid journalism were making private life more public. In that world, truth isn’t merely a fact; it’s a breach of decorum. Calling it “naked” suggests indecency, but also vulnerability: nakedness is what you are when you can’t manage impressions anymore.
The subtext is quietly cynical about our stated ideals. We claim to want honesty, transparency, authenticity. Repplier implies we mostly want them in moderation, with strategic drapery. A confession that arrives too cleanly, too directly, threatens the social order because it removes the face-saving compromises that let people coexist. The line also needles the sanctimony of truth-tellers: insisting on “naked truth” can be less bravery than exhibitionism, a way to wield candor as power while pretending it’s virtue.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
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