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Who really said it

It takes two to speak the truth, — one to speak, and another to hear

Written by Henry David Thoreau 1817–1862 · American essayist, poet & naturalist
Verified Free to reuse

Genuinely Thoreau. The line appears in his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849), in the “Wednesday” chapter, inside his long meditation on friendship — the exact wording is confirmed against the text.

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“It takes two to speak the truth, — one to speak, and another to hear” Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849), "Wednesday"

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In context

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Provenance

The source

Work
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Chapter
“Wednesday”
First published
1849
Author
Henry David Thoreau

A Friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who can appreciate them in us. … It takes two to speak the truth, — one to speak, and another to hear.

From Thoreau’s extended reflection on friendship in the “Wednesday” chapter.

Read the Wednesday chapter on Wikisource

How we verified this

  • Wikiquote ↗ lists the line in its sourced section, citing A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849), “Wednesday.”
  • The exact wording — with the em-dash, “one to speak, and another to hear” — is confirmed in the Wikisource text ↗.
  • The book was first published in 1849 ↗, placing it firmly in the public domain.
Public domain

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers was first published in 1849, well before 1931, so the text and this line are in the public domain in the United States.

Fact-check

A note on wording

This is one of the rare feel-good Thoreau lines that is actually his — so the issue isn’t who said it but how it’s reproduced.

Countless quote sites variant

Many databases render it with a colon — “It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak…” — but Thoreau’s text uses a comma and an em-dash: “the truth, — one to speak.” See the original text ↗.

The attribution is correct: it’s from Thoreau’s A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers ↗ (1849), “Wednesday.”

Context

Why it resonates

Thoreau places the line in a passage arguing that friendship, not mere assertion, is what makes truth possible. Speaking the truth, for him, is not a solitary act of declaration but a shared one — it needs a listener generous enough to receive it.

The surrounding sentences frame a Friend as “one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues,” making clear that the “hearing” half of truth is an act of trust and attention, not passivity.

It takes two to speak the truth, — one to speak, and another to hear.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Truth

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Wikisource — Wednesday chapteren.wikisource.org

Full public-domain text of the chapter containing the line.
Wikiquote — Henry David Thoreauen.wikiquote.org

Lists the quote in its sourced section with the 1849 citation.
Project Gutenberg — A Week (full text)gutenberg.org

Complete free e-text of the book for reading in full context.
Wikipedia — A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Riversen.wikipedia.org

Background and 1849 publication history of Thoreau's first book.
The Walden Woods Project — the workwalden.org

Thoreau scholarship archive page for the book.

The author

About Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

1817–1862 · American essayist, poet, philosopher & naturalist

Henry David Thoreau was an American Transcendentalist writer best known for Walden (1854) and the essay Civil Disobedience. His first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849), grew out of a boating trip with his brother John and weaves travelogue together with digressive essays on friendship, poetry, and religion — the source of this line.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1849), “Wednesday.”

MLA (9th ed.)

Thoreau, Henry David. “Wednesday.” A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, James Munroe and Company, 1849.

APA (7th ed.)

Thoreau, H. D. (1849). A week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. James Munroe and Company.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘It takes two to speak the truth, — one to speak, and another to hear’?” Last verified 10 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/it-takes-two-to-speak-the-truth-one-to-speak-and-another-to

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