Pratchett did put these exact words in his Discworld novel The Truth (2000), but his characters present them as a saying that already existed (“Apparently, they say…”). Quote Investigator ↗ traces the saying back to Jonathan Swift in 1710. It finds the boots form in 1820 and shows Charles Haddon Spurgeon calling it “the old Proverb” in 1855.
“A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on” an old proverb, not Terry Pratchett’s coinage; he used it in The Truth (2000). History: Quote Investigator. Via Quotle.info
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In context
Evoking the theme of truth. Theme: "A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
Where Pratchett used it
Work
The Truth (Discworld novel 25)
First published
2000 · London: Doubleday (UK); HarperCollins (US)
How it is framed
Spoken by characters as an existing saying, not as Pratchett’s coinage
Older roots
Swift, 1710; boots form by 1820; Spurgeon’s “old Proverb,” 1855
…saying, sir, that a lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on.’ ‘Ha! Did you just make that up…
The Truth, 2000
This text comes from Internet Archive full-text snippets of the 2000 editions of The Truth; the ellipses mark where a snippet starts or stops. Elsewhere in the novel, Mr. Slant says the phrase again with a disclaimer: “Apparently, they say, a lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on. What an obnoxious little phrase, don’t you think?” That line is quoted from the US paperback, as transcribed by Quote Investigator ↗.
Quote Investigator ↗ traces the saying from Swift (1710) through the 1820 “pulling her boots on” form and Spurgeon’s 1855 “old Proverb.” It notes that Pratchett used the saying “several times” in The Truth (2000), and it finds no substantive support for crediting Twain or Churchill.
An Internet Archive full-text search ↗ finds the exact wording “a lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on” in the 2000 Doubleday and HarperCollins editions of The Truth.
The Annotated Pratchett File ↗ lists a third use in the novel (“lies could run round the world before the truth could get its boots on”) and glosses it as an existing saying that has been attributed to others.
Wikiquote ↗ lists the near-identical “halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on” as misattributed to James Callaghan, calling it a very old paraphrase that was in print in that form by 1939.
The exact wording appears in Terry Pratchett’s novel The Truth, first published in 2000, so the book is still in copyright. The proverb behind it is much older, and its 19th-century forms, such as the one Spurgeon quoted, are in the public domain.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Who gets credited, and why it’s wrong
The saying about a lie racing ahead of the truth has been pinned on many famous names. None of them coined it.
✕
as the originatorTerry Pratchett Used, not coined
He did write the line in The Truth (2000), but his characters frame it as an existing saying (“Apparently, they say…”, “Did you just make that up”). Quote Investigator ↗ lists his use as one late entry in a long chain of versions.
✕
“halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes”Mark Twain No evidence
Twain died in 1910, and the earliest credit to him that Quote Investigator ↗ found is from 1919, which QI judges not substantive. A 1987 Twain collection prints the “shoes” version only as “Attributed.”
✕
“before the truth has a chance to get its pants on”Winston Churchill No evidence
Quote Investigator ↗ calls a 1981 attribution to Churchill implausible, and notes that Churchill expert Richard M. Langworth listed the saying among lines Churchill never said.
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“halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on”James Callaghan Repeated, not coined
The line is widely quoted from a Commons speech of his, but Wikiquote ↗ lists it as misattributed: an old paraphrase that was in print in that form by 1939.
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19th-century “Maine to Georgia” versionsThomas Jefferson, Fisher Ames, John Randolph Early guesses
Quote Investigator ↗ shows the saying was already credited to each of them in the 1820s–1840s. It calls the Jefferson attribution implausible, and an 1846 review called the saying a Chinese proverb.
✓This is an anonymous proverb, and its wording has been changing for more than three hundred years, as Quote Investigator ↗ puts it. Swift can be credited with his own 1710 line, Spurgeon popularized a boots version in 1855, and Pratchett used it in 2000. None of them invented the boots saying.
Context
Why it sticks to Pratchett
Pratchett never claimed the line. In The Truth, a novel about lies, rumor and the press, the saying keeps coming back. Each time, a character treats it as received wisdom. One asks whether another “just made that up,” and Mr. Slant, who says he has “spent centuries in courtrooms,” calls it “an obnoxious little phrase.”
Lifted out of the novel, the sentence lost that framing and started circulating as a Pratchett original. Quote collections helped. The Internet Archive’s full-text index shows Seriously Funny (London: Doubleday, 2016), a book of Pratchett quotations, printing the line under The Truth.
“Apparently, they say, a lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on.”
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Filed under
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The true origin
Where the saying comes from
AP
Anonymous proverb
Folk saying · roots in Jonathan Swift, 1710 · boots version in print by 1820
This saying has no single author. Quote Investigator traces a whole family of sayings about fast lies and slow truth back to Jonathan Swift’s 1710 line “Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it.” The truth-pulling-on-its-boots image was in print by 1820. In an 1855 sermon, Charles Haddon Spurgeon quoted it as “the old Proverb.” Over time the wording has drifted from boots to shoes, breeches and pants.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Cite this
Terry Pratchett, The Truth (London: Doubleday, 2000), quoting a traditional proverb; for the saying’s history see Quote Investigator, “A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes,” July 13, 2014, https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/07/13/truth/.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on’?” Last verified 3 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/a-lie-can-run-round-the-world-before-the-truth-has-got-its/