“Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect…

… like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.”

- Jonathan Swift, “The Examiner” (1710 A.D.)

@GoodAaron Interesting. I thought Mark Twain quipped that; his version came later, and is shorter.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/76-a-lie-can-travel-half-way-around-the-world-while

A quote by Mark Twain

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

@jspath55 There are variations on it going all the way back to Aeschylus and Lucan — I just found this one rather droll.