Pondering the challenge and pace of misinformation … some famous Mark Twain quotes from a time before social media and AI bots.
• https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1244.Mark_Twain
“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”
• https://quotefancy.com/mark-twain-quotes
[Ten pages of 50 quotes per page. Only viewed 5 pages. All pages filled with many, many ads.]
“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”
“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.”
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
“Just because you’re taught that something’s right and everyone believes it’s right, it don’t make it right.”
“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.”
“No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot.”
“He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.”
“Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.”
“A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies.”
“You can’t reason someone out of something that they weren’t reasoned into in the first place.”
“It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.”
“When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.”
“A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.”
• https://www.azquotes.com/author/14883-Mark_Twain/tag/lying
“A little lie can travel half way ’round the world while Truth is still lacing up her boots.”
“Among other common lies, we have the silent lie – the deception which one conveys by simply keeping still and concealing the truth. Many obstinate truth-mongers indulge in this dissipation, imagining that if they speak no lie, they lie not at all.”
“A lie can make it half way around the world before the truth has time to put its boots on.”
“You take the lies out of him, and he’ll shrink to the size of your hat; you take the malice out of him, and he’ll disappear.”
“It is often the case that a man who can’t tell a lie thinks he is the best judge of one.”
“The history of our race, and each individual’s experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.”
Notes
[1] REUTERS FACT CHECK JUNE 13, 2023
• https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-twain-fools/fact-check-quote-about-truth-and-fools-is-falsely-attributed-to-mark-twain-idUSL1N385208
There is no evidence that American writer Mark Twain said this quote:
“The truth has no defense against a fool determined to believe a lie.”