"Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics"

[Shapiro, Fred]

I believe that this is the earliest version of "lies, damned lies, and statistics" that has so far been discovered:

1891 _Notes & Queries_ 10 Oct. 288  DEGREES OF FALSEHOOD. -- Who was it who said, "There are three degrees of falsehood: the first is a fib, the second is a lie, and then come statistics"?  ST. SWITHIN

It does not appear that this query was ever answered.

Fred Shapiro


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