“It is a great deal easier to set a story afloat than to stop it. If you want truth to go round the world you must hire an express train to pull it; but if you want a lie to go round the world, it will fly: it is as light as a feather, and a breath will carry it. It is well said in the old proverb, "A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on." Nevertheless, it does not injure us; for if light as feather it travels as fast, its effect is just about as tremendous as the effect of down, when it is blown against the walls of a castle; it produces no damage whatever, on account of its lightness and littleness. Fear not, Christian. Let slander fly, let envy send forth its forked tongue, let it hiss at you, your bow shall abide in strength. Oh! shielded warrior, remain quiet, fear no ill; but, like the eagle in its lofty eyrie, look thou down upon the fowlers in the plain, turn thy bold eye upon them and say, "Shoot ye may, but your shots will not reach half-way to the pinnacle where I stand. Waste your powder upon me if ye will; I am beyond your reach."”

— Charles Spurgeon

Then clap your wings, mount to heaven, and there laugh them to scorn, for ye have made your refuge God, and shall find a most secure abode.
"No. 17: Joseph Attacked by the Archers (Genesis 49:23–24, delivered on Sunday 1855-04-01)" pp.130
Sermons delivered in Exeter Hall, Strand, during the enlargement of New Park Street Chapel, Southmark (1855)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 25, 2024. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It is a great deal easier to set a story afloat than to stop it. If you want truth to go round the world you must hire …" by Charles Spurgeon?

Charles Spurgeon 49

British preacher, author, pastor and evangelist 1834–1892

Related quotes

“A lie will gallop halfway round the world before the truth has time to pull its breeches on.”

Cordell Hull (1871–1955) American politician, U.S. Secretary of State from 1933 to 1944

Memoirs of Cordell Hull (1948), 1:220
This is a variant of similar statements attributed earlier to Mark Twain, e.g., "A lie will fly around the whole world while the truth is getting its boots on." The oldest attribution (1831) is to Fisher Ames: “falsehood proceeds from Maine to Georgia, while truth is pulling on his boots”.

“A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on.”

Terry Pratchett book The Truth

Source: The Truth

“A lie can be halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on.”

James Callaghan (1912–2005) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; 1976-1979

Though widely quoted from his speech in the House of Commons, (1 November 1976) published in Hansard, House of Commons, 5th series, vol. 918, col. 976.; this is actually a very old paraphrase of a statement of the 19th century minister Charles Spurgeon: "A lie travels round the world while truth is putting on her boots." Even in the paraphrased form Callaghan used, it was in widely familiar, many years prior to his use of it, and is evidenced to have been published in that form at least as early as 1939.
Misattributed

“Love makes the world go round? Not at all. Whiskey makes it go round twice as fast.”

Compton Mackenzie (1883–1972) Scottish writer, cultural commentator, raconteur and nationalist

“The force that moves you is a circular breath
of life and death going round and round and round.”

Edie Brickell (1966) singer from the United States

"The Wheel"
Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars (1988)
Context: All your thoughts are in another head.
Your dreams are sleepin' in a different bed.
The force that moves you is a circular breath
of life and death going round and round and round.