Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it

HT to Neo for the link.

From A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes by Quote Investigator. I am familiar with the phrase but had never particularly considered its origin.

QI does a good job of tracking back its origins. As in so many cases, it is a process of someone saying something which inspires a series of subsequent refinement and permutations until a final version becomes settled and in wide circulation. It is a fascinating example of the emergent order of language and communication.

They summarize their conclusions:

In conclusion, there exists a family of expressions contrasting the dissemination of lies and truths, and these adages have been evolving for more than 300 years. Jonathan Swift can properly be credited with the statement he wrote in 1710. Charles Haddon Spurgeon popularized the version he employed in a sermon in 1855, but he did not craft it. At this time, there is no substantive support for assigning the saying to Mark Twain or Winston Churchill.

I do like Swift's original version.

The major literary figure Jonathan Swift wrote on this topic in “The Examiner” in 1710 although he did not mention shoes or boots. Boldface has been added to excerpts:

Besides, as the vilest Writer has his Readers, so the greatest Liar has his Believers; and it often happens, that if a Lie be believ’d only for an Hour, it has done its Work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect…

A man of our times is that Jonathan Swift, viewing the news cycles of this weekend.