“Tis strange - but true; for Truth is always strange,
Stranger than Fiction”
Variant: For truth is always strange; stranger than fiction.
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George Gordon Byron 227
English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement 1788–1824Related quotes
“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
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
“But please remember: this is only a work of fiction. The truth, as always, will be far stranger.”
The Club of Queer Trades (1905) Ch. 4 "Speculation of the House Agent"
Source: Earthsea Books, The Other Wind (2001), Chapter 2 “Palaces” (p. 72)
“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 would quickly cease to be stranger than fiction, once we got used to it.”
1910s
Source: A Little Book in C Major (1916)