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Who really said it

If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed

Not Mark Twain — a modern aphorism of unknown authorship Unknown (a late-20th-century coinage) Wording first documented c. 1998–2000 · falsely pinned on Twain (1835–1910)
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

There is no evidence Mark Twain ever wrote or said this. It appears in none of his books, letters, speeches, or the standard compilations, and the earliest attributions to Twain surface only around 1998–2000—nearly a century after his death. As Quote Investigator and the Center for Mark Twain Studies conclude, the exact wording’s creator remains unknown; it appears to have condensed an old sentiment expressed by others.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed” Not said by Mark Twain — a modern aphorism of unknown authorship, misattributed to Twain only from around 1998.

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

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Mark Twain — American humorist, novelist & lecturer. Theme: "If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed". 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.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed". 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 paper trail

Attributed to
Mark Twain (falsely)
Actual origin
Unknown modern coinage
Earliest Twain attribution
c. 1998–2000
Status
Apocryphal / misattributed

If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.

The line is real and widely circulated—but it is not Twain’s. No primary source in his hand or voice contains it.

Quote Investigator: full investigation

How we know

  • Quote Investigator found no substantive evidence for Twain and traces the earliest strong match to a 2000 Usenet post in the newsgroup israel.francophones, where it was already being credited to Twain.
  • The Center for Mark Twain Studies lists it among the “Apocryphal Twain,” noting attributions to Twain do not appear until 1998 or later and became common only around 2007.
  • The idea is older than the phrasing: Thomas Jefferson wrote in an 1807 letter that “the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them,” and Mayor Orville Hubbard said in 1955 “it’s better to be uninformed than misinformed.”

The exact wording has no identifiable author or first-publication source—it is a modern aphorism of unknown origin, first documented in the late 1990s–2000—so no copyright status can be responsibly asserted. It is definitively not a Twain text (his relevant works are public domain, but this line is not among them).

Fact-check

Who really said it?

This is one of the most-shared “Mark Twain” quotes he never said. The wording is a modern compression of a much older grievance about the press; its actual author is unknown, and Twain’s name was attached only decades after his death.

Mark Twain Misattributed

No instance appears in Twain’s books, letters, speeches, or standard compilations such as Mark Twain Speaking, and it is absent from Barbara Schmidt’s authoritative twainquotes.com. Attributions to Twain surface only from about 1998–2000, per the Center for Mark Twain Studies.

Thomas Jefferson (1807 letter) Antecedent, not this wording

Jefferson wrote that “the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them”—the same sentiment, but not this epigram, as noted by Quote Investigator.

Orville Hubbard (1955) & Ezra Taft Benson (1979) Antecedent

Hubbard said “it’s better to be uninformed than misinformed,” and Benson told BYU in 1979 “it would be better to be uninformed than misinformed.” QI suggests the modern saying likely evolved from such lines—but names no single author.

The honest verdict: not Mark Twain. It is a modern aphorism of unknown authorship—an old complaint about newspapers, distilled into a quip and retro-fitted onto history’s most quotable American, per Quote Investigator.

Context

The irony Twain might have enjoyed

There is a fitting joke buried in this quote’s history: newspaper columnists spent years citing a fabricated Twain line—in newspapers—to warn readers that newspapers can’t be trusted. An unreliable citation testifying to unreliability is exactly the kind of self-swallowing paradox Twain built careers of humor on.

The sentiment itself is genuinely old. Complaints that reading the press leaves you worse-informed than reading nothing stretch back through Ezra Taft Benson, Orville Hubbard and all the way to Thomas Jefferson in 1807. The phrasing we share today, though, is a late-20th-century coinage—polished, symmetrical, and authorless—that found a famous home it never earned.

A fake quote about misinformation, spread by the very medium it mocks.

Explore

Filed under

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

Truth Doubt Knowledge

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: full investigationquoteinvestigator.com

Garson O'Toole's detailed tracing: no Twain evidence; earliest strong match 2000; antecedents in Jefferson, Hubbard, Benson.
The Apocryphal Twainmarktwainstudies.com

The Center for Mark Twain Studies debunks the attribution and dates it to 1998 or later.
Did Mark Twain Say This? (fact-check)snopes.com

Snopes' fact-check of the newspaper misattribution.
Five Commonly Misattributed Quotationsstyle.mla.org

MLA Style Center lists this among frequently misattributed quotations.
TwainQuotes (Barbara Schmidt)twainquotes.com

The authoritative directory of sourced Twain quotations, where this line does not appear.

Popularly credited author

Why it gets pinned on Twain

Mark Twain

1835–1910 · American humorist, novelist & lecturer

Mark Twain (the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835–1910) was America’s most quotable humorist, author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Innocents Abroad. He genuinely spent years as a newspaperman and skewered the press in essays like “Journalism in Tennessee,” which is exactly why a punchy, cynical line about newspapers feels like his—and why it stuck. But feeling Twainian is not the same as being Twain’s: his fame makes him the internet’s single biggest magnet for orphaned quips.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Quote Investigator

No authenticated Twain source exists. Earliest documented as an anonymous modern saying attributed to Twain in a 2000 Usenet post; see Garson O'Toole (Quote Investigator), “If You Don't Read the Newspaper You Are Uninformed, If You Do Read the Newspaper You Are Misinformed,” December 3, 2016.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/if-you-dont-read-the-newspaper-you-are-uninformed-if-you-do

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