Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear
Not Edgar Allan Poe — an older anonymous proverbUnknown (a traditional proverb)Earliest known version 1831 (William Johnson Neale) · anonymous English saying
Quote Investigator’s earliest example is an 1831 naval novel by William Johnson Neale, and it judges that the saying was probably already current in the Royal Navy. Poe used a reversed variant in 1845, “Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.” This exact wording is printed in Dinah Mulock Craik’s 1858 A Woman’s Thoughts about Women, where she quotes it as “a cynical saying” ( Quote Investigator ↗).
“Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear” is an anonymous proverb, earliest known in 1831 (William Johnson Neale). It is quoted as “a cynical saying” in Dinah Mulock Craik, A Woman’s Thoughts about Women (1858). It is often credited to Edgar Allan Poe, who used the variant “Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see” (1845). Source: Quotle.info
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Provenance
Where it really comes from
Quote
Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear
This exact wording in print
Dinah Mulock Craik, A Woman’s Thoughts about Women (1858), quoted as “a cynical saying”
Poe’s version
“Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see” — “The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether,” Graham’s Magazine, November 1845
Earliest known (per Quote Investigator)
William Johnson Neale, Cavendish: Or The Patrician at Sea (1831)
“Believe only half of what you see, and nothing that you hear,” is a cynical saying, and yet less bitter than at first appears. It does not argue that human nature is false, but simply that it is human nature.
Dinah Mulock Craik, 1858
From the chapter “Gossip” in Craik’s A Woman’s Thoughts about Women (Columbus: Follett, Foster & Co., 1858), p. 166. Craik is quoting a saying already in circulation, not coining one. Poe’s 1845 tale reverses the order: “Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.”
Quote Investigator ↗ concludes that the earliest instance it knows is William Johnson Neale’s 1831 novel Cavendish (“The rule with us is, believe nothing you hear, and but half you see”), probably already current in the Royal Navy. It says Poe helped popularize the expression “but he was not the first to use it.”
Wikiquote’s Poe page ↗ sources only Poe’s own wording, to “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether” (1845). Its Craik page ↗ notes that she appears to be quoting an existing saying.
✓Public domain
This exact wording is printed in Dinah Mulock Craik’s A Woman’s Thoughts about Women (1858), as a saying already in use. Poe’s 1845 variant and Neale’s 1831 version are also far older than the 1931 U.S. cutoff, so the phrase is 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 the credit, and why
This skeptic’s rule has been passed through several famous names. The record shows an anonymous proverb that each of them repeated.
Credited in reference booksDinah Mulock Craik Quoted it
H. L. Mencken’s 1942 dictionary of quotations gives this exact wording with a citation to Craik’s A Woman’s Thoughts (1858), per Quote Investigator ↗. But in her book ↗ she introduces it as “a cynical saying” that already exists.
✕
Earliest known userWilliam Johnson Neale 1831
In Neale’s naval novel Cavendish (1831), an officer says “The rule with us is, believe nothing you hear, and but half you see.” Quote Investigator ↗ calls him a candidate for creator, but thinks the saying was probably already circulating in the Royal Navy.
✕
How it spread“I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and a 2014 film
Quote Investigator ↗ notes a version in the Whitfield–Strong song (written 1966, a hit for Marvin Gaye in 1968). It also notes a 2014 Chicago Tribune review of Stonehearst Asylum, a film loosely based on Poe’s tale, which presented Poe’s variant as coming “straight out of Poe.”
✓An anonymous proverb, earliest known in print in 1831. Poe used a reversed variant in 1845, and the exact popular wording appears in 1858, when Craik quotes it as “a cynical saying” (Quote Investigator ↗).
Context
Why Poe gets the credit
Poe’s tale is the most famous place the saying appears, so the credit drifted to him. In June 2017, a post to the American Dialect Society mailing list ↗ reported that Andre Bauer, a former lieutenant governor of South Carolina, had said on CNN that Poe wrote “Believe half of what you see and nothing of what you hear.” That exchange led Quote Investigator to write its article.
At first, Poe looked like the leading candidate. Quote Investigator later added earlier citations, including Neale’s 1831 novel and Captain Sir Edward Belcher’s 1843 voyage narrative, which calls it the law “in discovery ships.” Its update history ↗ dates those additions to October 16, 2024.
Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see. — Poe’s actual wording, 1845
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
Edgar Allan Poe was the American master of the macabre and the detective story, and a sharp-tongued magazine critic. He put a version of this adage, “Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see,” into the mouth of an asylum director in his satirical tale “The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether” (Graham’s Magazine, November 1845). The story helped spread the proverb, which is why Poe is often given credit for it. But the saying was already in print before the tale, and the popular modern wording is not his.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Quote Investigator
Anonymous proverb; earliest known in William Johnson Neale, Cavendish: Or The Patrician at Sea, vol. 1 (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831), 59, as cited by Quote Investigator. Poe’s variant: Edgar A. Poe, “The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether,” Graham’s Magazine 28, no. 5 (November 1845). Exact wording: Dinah Mulock Craik, A Woman’s Thoughts about Women (Columbus: Follett, Foster & Co., 1858), 166.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear’?” Last verified 3 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/believe-only-half-of-what-you-see-and-nothing-that-you-hear/