"There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth"
About this Quote
The sly subtext is anti-romantic. Dickens isn’t praising cleverness, spin, or even “complex” honesty. He’s arguing that complication is what panic produces: excuses, alibis, half-lies, self-flattering narratives. Those may buy time, but they also multiply liabilities. “Simple truth” reads like a survival strategy because it closes off the chain reaction. One lie demands another; one evasive sentiment demands a performance. Truth, plainly stated, stops the bleeding.
Contextually, this fits a novelist who made entire plots out of the costs of secrecy and the power imbalance embedded in misinformation. In Dickens’s world, the poor are routinely trapped by paperwork, reputations, and bureaucratic fictions. So “simple” isn’t naive - it’s radical. It’s the refusal to let language become another instrument of control. The line lands like a moral, but it’s really an instruction manual for staying human under pressure.
Quote Details
| Topic | Honesty & Integrity |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Dickens, Charles. (2026, January 15). There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-nothing-so-strong-or-safe-in-an-5619/
Chicago Style
Dickens, Charles. "There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-nothing-so-strong-or-safe-in-an-5619/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-nothing-so-strong-or-safe-in-an-5619/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.










