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Who really said it

Half of the Town Councilors Are Not Fools

Not Disraeli — a Swedish newspaper story from 1927 Unknown — popularly credited to Benjamin Disraeli Anonymous newspaper anecdote · first printed July 1927 · attached to Disraeli by 1958
Disputed Free to reuse

The dates settle it. Disraeli died in 1881; the earliest telling of this joke that Quote Investigator could find was printed in July 1927, in a story about a municipal councillor in an unnamed town near Uppsala, Sweden, who was made to apologise and posted bills reading ‘I said that half of the town councilors are fools. I now declare that half of the town councilors are not fools.’ It reached Disraeli’s name in 1958, in a reference book on Parliament. QI searched the Hansard record and did not find the exchange.

Last verified 5 Sep 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Half of the Town Councilors Are Not Fools” Not Disraeli. An anonymous newspaper anecdote first printed in July 1927 about a town councillor near Uppsala, Sweden; attached to Disraeli in 1958. · Verbatim: “I said that half of the town councilors are fools. I now declare that half of the town councilors are not fools.”

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Benjamin Disraeli. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Free to use, including in commercial and paid presentations — no permission or licence needed.

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In context

Evoking the themes of power and character. Theme: "Half of the Town Councilors Are Not Fools". 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 "Half of the Town Councilors Are Not Fools". 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

The source

Earliest documented
Altoona Mirror, 20 July 1927
Setting
An unnamed town near Uppsala, Sweden
First attached to Disraeli
An Encyclopaedia of Parliament, 1958
Disraeli died
1881 — 46 years before the first telling

A municipal councilor … remarked that certainly half of his colleagues were fools. An apology was demanded. He promised to make reparation and caused bills with the following correction to be posted on boardings in the town: “I said that half of the town councilors are fools. I now declare that half of the town councilors are not fools.” As printed in July 1927

Quote Investigator reports the same story in the Syracuse Herald and The Milwaukee Journal within the same month. No speaker is named in any of them.

Quote Investigator on “half the town councilors”

How we verified this

  • Quote Investigator’s earliest instance is the July 1927 Swedish story, and the earliest evidence it found linking the tale to Disraeli is An Encyclopaedia of Parliament by Norman Wilding and Philip Laundy, 1958: quoteinvestigator.com ↗.
  • QI states that it searched the Hansard database of parliamentary transcripts and has not found evidence of the retraction, and that it also searched for variants using ‘fools’, ‘knaves’ and ‘idiots’.
  • The joke was never fixed to one target. QI traces it to aldermen in The Sydney Mail in 1930, to an unnamed town in The Montreal Gazette in 1933, to a South African parliament in 1963 and to the Israeli Knesset in 1968.
  • Neither the sourced nor the misattributed section of Wikiquote’s Disraeli page carries this line in any form: en.wikiquote.org ↗.
Public domain

The earliest documented telling is a newspaper item published in July 1927, which places it in the public domain in the United States. No author was named in it, and none has since been identified.

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

Often misattributed

A joke with no author and a long list of borrowed ones. Disraeli is simply the most quotable name it has been pinned to.

Benjamin Disraeli No contemporary source

He died in 1881; the story first appears in 1927 and reaches his name in 1958. Quote Investigator searched Hansard and found nothing: Quote Investigator ↗.

An unnamed councillor near Uppsala, Sweden ancestor, not author

The July 1927 newspaper story that Quote Investigator identifies as the earliest instance names nobody: Quote Investigator ↗.

Dennis Skinner later variant

Skinner did make a related retraction joke in the Commons in 1981 — offering to agree that a member ‘was there the other half’ — but it is a different line, and Quote Investigator transcribes it from the Hansard record: Quote Investigator ↗.

An anonymous Swedish newspaper anecdote from 1927, retold about aldermen, cabinets and parliaments for a century, and given to Disraeli in 1958: Quote Investigator ↗.

Context

Why it mattered

The joke turns on a rule of parliamentary manners: you may be forced to withdraw an insult, but nobody can stop you withdrawing it in a form that insults again. That is why it keeps being relocated to whichever legislature the teller finds funniest.

It attaches to Disraeli because he genuinely was the great parliamentary wit of the Victorian Commons — which makes the story plausible enough that few people check it.

I now declare that half of the town councilors are not fools.

Read the full story

Quote Investigator traces the anecdote through The Sydney Mail (1930, aldermen and a newspaper editor), The Montreal Gazette (1933), Casey Motsisi in DRUM magazine (reprinted 1963) and a 1968 memoir relocating it to the Israeli parliament.

The 1958 attribution comes from An Encyclopaedia of Parliament, which called the occasion famous — a reference book asserting fame is often the moment an anecdote becomes a fact.

Explore

Filed under

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

Power Character

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 Investigatorquoteinvestigator.com

The full investigation, from the July 1927 Swedish story to the 1958 Disraeli attribution.
Wikiquote: Benjamin Disraelien.wikiquote.org

His sourced quotations and a long misattributed section — neither of which carries this line.
Wikipedia: Benjamin Disraelien.wikipedia.org

Biography of the Prime Minister the story is told about.

Popularly credited author

Why it gets pinned on Disraeli

Benjamin Disraeli

1804–1881 · British Prime Minister, novelist and parliamentary wit

Benjamin Disraeli was twice Prime Minister and, by common consent, the most quotable speaker of the Victorian Commons — which has made him one of the standing magnets for unattributed political wit. A great deal of what circulates under his name was said later, by someone else, or by nobody in particular. His Wikiquote page carries a long misattributed section for exactly this reason, and it does not include this line.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

“The Better Half.” Altoona Mirror (Altoona, Pennsylvania), 20 July 1927, p. 12. Earliest documented instance located by Quote Investigator; no speaker named.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Half of the Town Councilors Are Not Fools’?” Last verified 5 Sep 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/half-of-the-town-councilors-are-not-fools/

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