404·Quotes

On display — verified

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

This one is real. It hangs here because the label the world gives it is wrong in some other way.

Label as commonly displayed

Mark Twain, crediting Benjamin Disraeli

Twain printed it in 1907 and gave it to Disraeli, who is not known to have said it. Versions were in circulation by 1891, and no one can be named as the coiner.

Verdict Verified

Did Mark Twain Say “There Are Three Kinds of Lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics”?

The short answer

Mark Twain did use it, and said he was quoting someone else. In an instalment of his autobiography published in the North American Review on 5 July 1907, he wrote: “Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.’” So the line is genuinely in Twain, but it is not genuinely his, and Twain himself did not claim it.

Not Disraeli either

Benjamin Disraeli died in 1881. Quote Investigator found the remark first credited to him in a letter to The Times and The Standard in July 1895, which said “Lord Beaconsfield” (Disraeli's title) had spoken of “three degrees of veracity—viz., lies d—d lies, and statistics.” No one has found it in Disraeli's own speeches or writings.

A joke that grew

The saying grew in steps. In the 1880s lawyers and judges were quoted joking that witnesses came in three classes, ending with “experts”. In 1891 versions appeared with statistics in third place: “a fib, a lie, and statistics”. In 1892 the politician Arthur Balfour was reported using “lies, damned lies, and statistics”. Quote Investigator concludes that the saying cannot be credited to a single creator.

Provenance

  1. PrimaryMark Twain, Chapters from My Autobiography (North American Review, 1906–07) — Project Gutenberg eBook #19987
  2. ReferenceQuote Origin: There Are Three Kinds of Lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics — Quote Investigator

Last reviewed 2026-10-06

Did Mark Twain say “lies, damned lies, and statistics”?

He printed it in 1907, in his autobiography in the North American Review, and credited it to Disraeli.

Did Disraeli say it?

There is no evidence that he did. It was first credited to him in 1895, fourteen years after his death.

Who coined “lies, damned lies, and statistics”?

Nobody can be named. The joke grew in stages from the 1880s, and versions with statistics were circulating by 1891.

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