Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. XV
Misquoted as "Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense." by Laurence J. Peter in "Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time", among many others.
Following the Equator (1897)
Source: Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World
“Truth must of necessity be stranger than fiction … for fiction is the creation of the human mind, and therefore is congenial to it.”
The Club of Queer Trades (1905) Ch. 4 "Speculation of the House Agent"
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G. K. Chesterton 229
English mystery novelist and Christian apologist 1874–1936Related quotes
“Tis strange - but true; for Truth is always strange,
Stranger than Fiction”
Variant: For truth is always strange; stranger than fiction.
“Truth is stranger than fiction — to some people, but I am measurably familiar with it.”
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. XV
Following the Equator (1897)
“Truth may be stranger than fiction, goes the old saw, but it is never as strange as lies.”
Or, for that matter, as true.
Source: The Areas of My Expertise (2005), p. 18
“Truth would quickly cease to be stranger than fiction, once we got used to it.”
1910s
Source: A Little Book in C Major (1916)
“But please remember: this is only a work of fiction. The truth, as always, will be far stranger.”
“A play is fiction — and fiction is fact distilled into truth.”
The New York Times (18 September 1966)
“Non-fiction contains facts, fiction contains truth.”
Next Testament (Boom Studios, 2014)