Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth
Paraphrase of the Buddha — not his exact wordsThe Buddha (paraphrased)fl. c. 5th century BCE · founder of Buddhism — the teaching is genuinely his; the exact wording is a modern paraphrase
The Buddha did teach a version of this — that three things shine openly, the moon, the sun, and the Dhamma of a Realized One (Aṅguttara Nikāya 3.131 ↗) — but the familiar “cannot be long hidden … the truth” phrasing is a 20th-century paraphrase that quietly changes the meaning, first crystallising in P. Lakshmi Narasu’s The Essence of Buddhism (1907).
“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth” a 20th-century paraphrase of a genuine Buddhist teaching (Anguttara Nikaya 3.131), first phrased this way by P. Lakshmi Narasu in The Essence of Buddhism (1907); often misattributed to Confucius. Via Quotle.info
Can you use it?
✓ Free to use, including in commercial and paid presentations — no permission or licence needed.
Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool
In context
Evoking the world of The Buddha (Siddhārtha Gautama) — founder of Buddhism. Theme: "Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
Where it really comes from
Canonical root
Aṅguttara Nikāya 3.131, the Book of the Threes
Earliest paraphrase
P. Lakshmi Narasu, The Essence of Buddhism (1907)
Exact modern wording
first traced to A Way Forward (Voigt & Drury, 2003)
Status
“Fakeish” — a genuine teaching, reworded
Mendicants, these three things shine in the open, not under cover. What three? The moon shines in the open, not under cover. The sun shines in the open, not under cover. The teaching and training proclaimed by a Realized One shine in the open, not under cover.
↑ the popular version keeps the sun and moon but swaps the Buddha’s Dhamma for a generic ‘truth’
The passage above (Aṅguttara Nikāya 3.131) is what the Buddha is actually recorded as saying. Narasu compressed it in 1907 into “Three things shine before the world and cannot be hidden. They are the moon, the sun, and the truth proclaimed by the Tathāgata,” and later hands trimmed ‘the truth proclaimed by the Tathāgata’ down to just ‘the truth’ — turning a claim about open teaching into a claim about truth surfacing.
The genuine teaching is Aṅguttara Nikāya 3.131 ↗: the moon, the sun, and “the teaching and training proclaimed by a Realized One” shine in the open, not under cover — a point about the Dhamma being public, not about truth escaping concealment.
The compressed “three things … cannot be hidden … the truth” wording traces to P. Lakshmi Narasu’s The Essence of Buddhism (1907) ↗: “Three things shine before the world and cannot be hidden.”
In its exact modern form the line only surfaces around 2003 and drifts between the Buddha, Confucius and even Colin Powell, per Fake Buddha Quotes ↗.
✓Public domain
The underlying teaching is ancient and Narasu’s 1907 paraphrase is long out of copyright, so the words are free to use. Just don’t present them as the Buddha’s verbatim speech — they are a modern rewording, not a line from the Pāli Canon.
Fact-check
Who it gets pinned on
This one is unusually tangled: the sentiment is genuinely the Buddha’s, but the exact words are not, and along the way the line has been pinned on two other famous names.
✕
Incorrectly attributed to Confucius
Quote sites such as AZ Quotes ↗ credit Confucius, but the line has no basis in the Analects or any Confucian text; it is a reworking of a Buddhist passage, not a Chinese one.
✕
Occasionally attributed to Colin Powell rare
Fake Buddha Quotes ↗ notes the line has turned up credited to Colin Powell — a stray modern misattribution with no source behind it.
✕
Quoted verbatim as the Buddha
Crediting the Buddha is half-right: he taught the idea (AN 3.131 ↗), but these are not his words — the ‘sun, moon and truth’ phrasing is Narasu’s 1907 paraphrase.
✓The teaching is the Buddha’s (Aṅguttara Nikāya 3.131 ↗); the memorable wording is P. Lakshmi Narasu’s 1907 paraphrase — not a line from Confucius, Colin Powell, or the Buddha’s own mouth.
Context
Why it matters
The gap between the canonical text and the popular quote is not just wording — it is meaning. The Buddha’s original point was institutional: unlike the secret, initiate-only doctrines of some rival schools, his teaching was proclaimed openly, “in the open, not under cover.” The modern version repurposes that image into a moral promise that truth will always come to light, which is a different (and more marketable) claim.
That drift is exactly what makes the line so quotable today — and so easy to hang on whichever sage a reader finds most authoritative, whether the Buddha, Confucius, or a modern statesman.
A claim about open teaching became a promise that truth always surfaces.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
The Buddha (Siddhārtha Gautama) was the north Indian teacher whose discourses, preserved in the Pāli Canon, include the ‘Book of the Threes’ passage this quote paraphrases. He taught that his Dhamma was open to all — “shining in the open, not under cover” — the opposite of a secret, initiate-only doctrine. The catchier ‘sun, moon and truth’ rewording is the later work of the Tamil Buddhist scholar P. Lakshmi Narasu, whose 1907 book compressed the discourse into a single memorable line.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Earliest documented wording
P. Lakshmi Narasu, The Essence of Buddhism (1907), paraphrasing the Aṅguttara Nikāya, Book of the Threes (AN 3.131).
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth’?” Last verified 7 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/three-things-cannot-be-long-hidden-the-sun-the-moon-and-the