A popular comment online attributed to a British politician is about how quickly false information spreads compared to true information. We checked to see if he said anything similar.
This phrase, indicating the authorship of Churchill, can be meet on websites with selections quotes famous personalities and aphorisms. Social network users (“VKontakte", X, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram) and blog platforms (LiveJournal, "Zen", "Peekaboo") share it on their pages. The phrase also appears in collections statements of a politician. Users also discuss it services questions and answers.
Winston Churchill is one of the most significant and, as a result, often quoted politicians of the 20th century. The written heritage remaining after his death has been carefully studied and digitized, so it is not difficult to check whether a particular quote belongs to him. However, on the site International Churchill Society, where, among other things, his most famous quotes are posted, in the database Churchill Archives Center at the University of Cambridge, on the portal project "Churchill" at Hillsdale College, whose staff collected and digitized more than 20 million words written by the politician, “Checked” did not find the desired aphorism. Moreover, senior researcher at the Churchill project, Richard Langworth, leads This quote is one example of dozens of statements circulated on the Internet that are erroneously attributed to the British politician.
None of the publications found by “Verified” on social networks in Russian or English indicate exactly where, when and under what circumstances Churchill used a similar phrase. It is also interesting that almost more popular different on the Internet phrase about truth and lies, attributed to To Mark Twain: “A lie will travel halfway around the world before the truth has time to put on its boots.” As you can see, it coincides almost word for word with the statement being analyzed. However, the authorship of the American writer is also in doubt. At least the Quote Investigator portal, which checks the correctness of quote attribution, didn't find it there is credible evidence that Twain, as well as Churchill, relates to this statement.
The idea itself that lies spread much faster than the truth is not new at all - it met from the satirist Jonathan Swift back in the early 18th century. He wrote: “Lies fly, but the truth, limping, follows it.” Despite the fact that no wardrobe items were mentioned in this phrase, the meaning is very close. A little more than a century later, in 1820, in an article in the American newspaper The Portland Gazette in a similar phrase appeared shoe reference: “Lies will fly from Maine to Georgia while the truth is putting on its boots.” Another century later memoirs former US Secretary of State Cordella Halla a version with trousers also appeared: “A lie will have time to travel halfway around the world before the truth can put on its trousers.” “Verified” and Quote Investigator did not find any publications during Churchill’s lifetime where the British politician was mentioned as the author of the quote about truth and lies (either in the version with boots or with pants). Apparently, the earliest case of attribution of such a statement to him is publication dated June 7, 1981 in the New York Times. In an interview with the publication, American politician Ernest Lefever supported his accusations against the media unfriendly to him with the phrase: “As Churchill said: “A lie will travel halfway around the world before the truth has time to put its shoes on.” Since at the time the note was published, 16 years had already passed since Churchill’s death and similar phrases had not been attributed to him before, most likely Lefever made a mistake in the attribution.
This is not the first time that Churchill has been attributed with common quotes to which he has nothing to do. Thus, “Verified” has already denied that the British politician was the author of the phrases “Sometimes you need to imitate ship wreck, so that rats run away from it", "If you're going through hell, keep going”, “Who in their youth was not liberal, he has no heart, whoever does not become a conservative in maturity has no mind,” etc. Churchill, as it turned out, did not utter any of them.
Thus, there is no evidence that Winston Churchill has anything to do with this aphorism. Similar statements appeared in the press several decades before his birth. If he ever used this rather common quotation, it is not recorded in any of his surviving works. For the first time, this phrase was attributed to Churchill - 16 years after his death - by an American politician in an interview with the New York Times. Probably after this, the quote began to diverge in various variations, indicating the authorship of the former British Prime Minister.
Cover photo: War Office official photographer, Horton (Capt), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Factcheck.kg. Quote check: Sadyr Japarov quoted Churchill, but Churchill did not say that
- Quote Investigator. Quote Origin: A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes
- Did Mark Twain say, “It is easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled”?
- Is it true that Goebbels said: the more monstrous the lie, the more willingly they believe it?
- Did Winston Churchill say: “My tastes are extremely simple. I am easily satisfied with the best”?
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