Truth is strong, and sometime or other will prevail.

"Truth is strong, and sometime or other will prevail." — thus spoke Mary Astell, the seventeenth-century English philosopher, often called the first English feminist. In her time, the voices of women were silenced, their minds dismissed, their spirits confined. Yet Astell, with the courage of a lion and the clarity of a prophetess, raised her voice to proclaim that truth cannot be bound forever. Though men might ignore it, though power might deny it, though centuries might obscure it, still truth, like a buried seed, pushes upward through stone and darkness until at last it blossoms in the light.

When Astell uttered these words, she spoke not from the luxury of triumph but from the midst of struggle. She saw injustice around her, she saw women denied education, she saw corruption clothed in authority. Yet she did not despair. For she trusted that truth is strong — stronger than custom, stronger than prejudice, stronger than the lies men weave to preserve their power. Her words were not only for her own cause but for all generations: a reminder that though truth may slumber, it never dies, and one day it will stand victorious.

History bears witness to this. Consider the story of Galileo Galilei, forced by the Church to recant the truth of the moving earth. In his age, power silenced his tongue, but it could not silence the cosmos. The planets still circled the sun, the telescope still revealed their orbits, and in time, the truth that he had spoken rose unshaken, while the decrees against him crumbled into dust. Galileo’s fate proves Astell’s wisdom: that though falsehood may rule for a season, truth will prevail, for its strength is eternal.

So too in the life of Frederick Douglass, the slave who became a voice for freedom. For centuries, the lie of slavery held sway, upheld by law, by custom, by violence. Yet the truth of human dignity burned beneath the surface, unquenchable. When Douglass took up the pen and the podium, he gave voice to that buried truth. Though scorned and threatened, he trusted in its strength. And in time, the chains fell, not because power granted mercy, but because truth prevailed. His life is a testimony to Astell’s words, spoken across the ages.

This teaching, then, is one of courage and patience. When you face a world that denies truth, when you see lies exalted and justice delayed, remember Astell’s wisdom: truth is strong. Do not be deceived by the victories of falsehood, for they are fleeting. Do not despair when justice seems crushed, for truth is patient, and in its season it shall rise. To stand with truth is to stand with eternity; to stand against it is to build on sand.

What lesson, O listener, should you take? It is this: live by truth even when it costs you. Do not yield to lies, however convenient, however safe, however common. Know that your faithfulness, though hidden now, will endure, for truth has a strength beyond the reach of time. The liars of yesterday are forgotten; the voices of truth endure in memory, in history, in spirit. To walk with truth is to walk with immortality.

Practical action lies before you: speak truth boldly, live truth quietly, and trust truth deeply. In your words, be honest; in your deeds, be just; in your heart, be steadfast. When others falter, stand firm; when others mock, endure; when others deny, proclaim. Do not measure truth by its immediate victory, but by its eternal strength. For, as Astell declared, even if delayed, truth will prevail — and in that assurance, the soul finds both courage and peace.

Thus, let her words echo across the generations: truth is strong. Empires may rise against it, tyrants may rage, falsehood may triumph for a moment, but truth, like the sun, cannot be extinguished. Wait for it, serve it, trust it — and when its hour comes, it will shine forth, unbroken, eternal, victorious.