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Who really said it

Facts are stubborn things

Spoken by John Adams 1735–1826 · lawyer, later 2nd U.S. President
Verified Free to reuse

From Adams’s closing argument for the British soldiers at the Boston Massacre trial (3–4 December 1770). It was printed that year in The Trial of William Wemms…, taken down in shorthand by John Hodgson (Boston: J. Fleeming, 1770). The wording is confirmed in a scan of that edition. Adams quoted an existing proverb. He did not invent it.

Last verified 3 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Facts are stubborn things” John Adams, closing argument for the defense, Boston Massacre trial, December 1770 (The Trial of William Wemms…, Boston: J. Fleeming, 1770) · Verbatim: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

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Provenance

Where it comes from

Work
The Trial of William Wemms, James Hartegan, William M’Cauley… for the Murder of Crispus Attucks…
Occasion
Adams’s closing argument for the defense, Boston Massacre trial, 3–4 December 1770
Published
Boston: J. Fleeming, 1770 — taken in short-hand by John Hodgson
Modern edition
Legal Papers of John Adams, vol. 3, “Adams’ Argument for the Defense”

I will enlarge no more on the evidence, but submit it to you.—Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence: nor is the law less stable than the fact; Closing argument, 1770

From the 1770 printed report, with the long ‘s’ (‘ftubborn’, ‘paffions’) changed to modern spelling. In the report, the shorthand reporter sums up most of Adams’s review of the evidence and then gives his last words in full, starting from this point. Many modern versions print “passion” in the singular, but the 1770 text has “passions.”

1770 printed trial report (scan)
The Trial of William Wemms… (Boston, 1770) at the Internet Archive
Adams’ Argument for the Defense, Legal Papers of John Adams (Massachusetts Historical Society)

How we confirmed it

  • The 1770 shorthand report of the trial ↗ (Boston: J. Fleeming) contains the passage. It comes after the reporter’s note that Adams “concluded.”
  • The Massachusetts Historical Society’s Legal Papers of John Adams ↗ dates the argument to 3–4 December 1770. Its text is taken from that printed trial report.
  • Quote Investigator ↗ accepts that Adams used the phrase in his 1770 defense. It also shows that the proverb was already in print by 1713.
  • Wikiquote ↗ lists the line among Adams’s quotes from the Boston Massacre trial.
Public domain

The line was first published in The Trial of William Wemms… (Boston: J. Fleeming, 1770), well before 1931, so the wording is in the public domain in the United States. A modern scholarly edition’s editorial notes may carry their own rights, but Adams’s words do not.

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

Said by Adams, coined by someone else

The attribution to Adams is real. The common mix-up is the idea that he invented the saying. He was using a proverb that was already around, and quote books have named other people as its source.

John Adams as the coiner Older proverb

Quote Investigator ↗ found a close version, “matters of fact are stubborn things,” in Treason Unmask’d (1713). It also found the exact phrase in The Political State of Great Britain (November 1717). Both come before Adams’s 1770 argument.

Tobias Smollett Bartlett’s credit

Quote Investigator ↗ reports that Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (10th edition, 1919) gave the line to Smollett’s translation of Lesage’s Gil Blas, not to Adams. Bartlett’s own footnote pointed to an earlier source, from 1747.

Ronald Reagan “Stupid things”

In his 15 August 1988 convention speech ↗, Reagan said, “as John Adams said, ‘Facts are stubborn things.’” Later in the same speech he slipped: “Facts are stupid things—stubborn things, I should say.” The slip is quoted on its own so often that it is sometimes mistaken for the source.

John Adams did say “Facts are stubborn things,” in his December 1770 defense of the Boston Massacre soldiers, as the 1770 printed trial report ↗ shows. But he was quoting a proverb that, according to Quote Investigator ↗, was already in print by 1713.

Context

Why it mattered

In March 1770, British soldiers fired into a crowd in Boston and killed five men, including Crispus Attucks. The soldiers were put on trial for murder in a town that was furious with them. Adams took on their defense. He ended his closing argument by asking the jury to put feelings aside and judge on the evidence and the law, and this line was the turning point of that ending.

Adams used the proverb to say that the jury’s wishes, inclinations and passions could not change what the witnesses had shown. He then argued that the law was just as fixed: if the soldiers were attacked, the law allowed self-defense, or at least reduced the charge to manslaughter.

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes… they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

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Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Truth

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: Facts Are Stubborn Thingsquoteinvestigator.com

How far back the proverb goes (1713, 1717), Bartlett’s credit to Smollett, and Adams’s 1770 use
Adams’ Argument for the Defense, 3–4 December 1770masshist.org

The scholarly text in the Legal Papers of John Adams, with editor’s notes
The Trial of William Wemms… (Boston, 1770)archive.org

A scan of the 1770 shorthand report that first printed the line
John Adams on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Lists the line under Adams’s Boston Massacre trial quotes
Reagan, Remarks at the Republican National Convention (1988)presidency.ucsb.edu

Transcript of Reagan crediting Adams and the “stupid things” slip

The author

About John Adams

John Adams

1735–1826 · Massachusetts lawyer, revolutionary & 2nd President of the United States

A Boston lawyer before he was a revolutionary, John Adams agreed in 1770 to defend the British soldiers charged over the Boston Massacre, and the case was very unpopular in the town. He went on to serve in the Continental Congress, as a diplomat in Europe, as the first Vice President and as the second President of the United States.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

John Adams, closing argument for the defense, 3–4 December 1770, in The Trial of William Wemms, James Hartegan, William M’Cauley, Hugh White, Matthew Killroy, William Warren, John Carrol, and Hugh Montgomery…, taken in short-hand by John Hodgson (Boston: J. Fleeming, 1770). Reprinted as “Adams’ Argument for the Defense: 3–4 December 1770,” in Legal Papers of John Adams, vol. 3.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Facts are stubborn things’?” Last verified 3 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/facts-are-stubborn-things/

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