believe it or not

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Jon: Thanks for sharing this interesting quip. Here are three more
instances starting in 1893.

Cite: 1893 July 1, The Fortnightly Review, The Russian Intrigues in
South Eastern Europe by C. B. Roylance-Kent, Start Page 105, Quote
Page 107, Leonard Scott Publication Company, New York, Chapman and
Hall, London. (Google Books full view)

http://books.google.com/books?id=GQEeAQAAIAAJ&q=lied#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
It was said of Napoleon III. that he lied so well that you could not
even believe the opposite of what he said. That, if true, was the ne
plus ultra of diplomatic ability.
[End excerpt]


Cite: 1897 January 5, The Repository, Press Points: An Accomplished
Prevaricator, Quote Page 4, Column 1, Canton, Ohio. (GenealogyBank)

[Begin excerpt]
Cincinnati Times-Star. - "General Horace Porter tells of a liar who
got so infernally untrustworthy that 'it became unsafe even to believe
the opposite of what he said.' The general doesn't say what became of
this phenomenal prevaricator, but there is reason to suspect that he
has been sent to Florida as Cuban war correspondent of a New York
daily.
[End excerpt]


Cite: 1905 March 17, 1905, Cleveland Leader, Just by the Way: About
the Limit, Page 6, Column 5, Cleveland, Ohio. (GenealogyBank)

[Begin excerpt]
"Mr. Ananias Munchausen is habitually untruthful, is he not?"
"Well, I should say so! Why, that man's such a finished liar that you
can't even believe the opposite of what he says!"
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sun, Dec 9, 2012 at 1:19 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      believe it or not
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Here's a folk saying that seems to have been overlooked despite its
> excellence:
>
> 1899 _The Speaker_  (London) (Jan. 28) 115: But they hardly seem to have
> attained that highest stage of art when a man is "such a liar that you
> cannot even believe the opposite of what he says."
>
> 1947 _Soviet Russia Today_ XV (No. 8) 6 [GB snippet]: It reminds me
> sometimes of the Irishman who said of another Irishman, "The man is such a
> liar that you cannot even believe the opposite of what he says."
>
> 1963 Richard W. Rowan _Cuba: The Big Red Lie_  (Kingston, N.Y.: Quinn) 41:
> A famous Chief of Intelligence once said of a foreign diplomat from whom it
> had been hoped to gain certain vital intelligence: "You can't even believe
> the opposite of what he says."
>
> 1968 D. N. Pritt, in _Labour Monthly_ (March) 142: That government has now
> reached the class described by an Irishman who said that his  opponent was
> "such a liar that you cannot even believe the opposite of what he says."
>
> 1988 _Jewish Frontier_ LV [GB snippet]: The type Abba Eban had in mind when
> he quipped: "You can't even believe the opposite of what he says."
>
> 2010
> http://www.elitetrader.com/vB/showthread.php?s=0d2085a3ccd00d11cdcb64c1371c9dae&postid=2879703:
> Anything Soros says is suspect. Every word out of his mouth is
> self-serving. You probably cannot even believe the opposite of what he says
> .
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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