Two posts within 24 hours? Incredible. But whilst this post and the last one aren’t directly related, I’ve been thinking about both of them at the same time, so some ideas may cross-over. Consider this a happy coincidence.
Benjamin Disraeli was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1868, and again in 1874–1880. He was a member of the Conservative Party, gave Queen Victoria the official title “Empress of India”, reformed trade unions and education, and championed ‘One Nation Conservatism’ at home, which would influence the Conservative party for decades to come.
Beyond politics, Disraeli was also a popular novelist, writing over a dozen books in his career. As a result of all of this, he’s often a person that things are attributed to, whether he was actually involved with them or not. One of the more prevalent fields this occurs in is quotes supposedly “said by Disraeli”. I can’t think of a nicher subject to talk about currently, so naturally I thought I’d write an article on it.
I’ve decided to use one particular quote for our little deep-dive here, which has entered the national language as a common phrase you hear regardless of where you are in the country. It even extends beyond Britain, with the entire Anglosphere parroting it at some point or another.
It’s also, somewhat ironically, a quote about just this subject — the way lies are constructed as truth.
There Are Three Kinds of Lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
Interestingly, although he’s credited with it, Disraeli didn’t come up with this quote, and most likely it wasn’t actually used until after his death.
The most famous instance of this phrase was in the autobiography of American author Mark Twain, published from 1906–1907; however, he never claimed the line himself, instead crediting, you guessed it, Benjamin Disraeli.
It’s most likely not that clear-cut though, as QuoteInvestigator records that it was by 1895 that the quote was attributed to Disraeli, who died in 1881 — fourteen years earlier.
The first instance of the phrase that we know of comes from 1882, and it reads “three classes—liars, great liars, and scientific witnesses”. Attributed to a “well-known Judge”, it’s not a million miles from the final product, but it lacks the punch that would later develop. Even earlier than that though is the notion that there are multiple categories of lies, with both Thomas Aquinas and Francis Bacon producing their own, admittedly more religiously-oriented categories.
So there we have it: Disraeli never said it (most likely); he most certainly didn’t coin it; and Mark Twain can go down in history as one of the greatest linguistic conmen of all time.
I did mean to end the article there, but after researching quotes I ended up looking a bit at the life, and the policies, of Benjamin Disraeli. He occupied a position within the Conservative party called “One Nation Conservatism” — or at least, that’s what it would later become, because the term “One Nation” is also a posthumous label never used during Disraeli’s lifetime (honestly, this man is buried under so much stuff he never did 😂). Stanley Baldwin built on Disraeli’s original principles, but assigned it the label in the 1920s.
Disraeli wrote a book called Sybil in 1845 in which he described the country as being “two nations: the rich and the poor”, and his overall policy was centred around the idea, not of eliminating the two distinct groups, but bridging the gap and allowing each to hold up the other. It’s quite a refreshing principle, in my opinion, particularly today when we seem more divided globally than ever, through wars, borders, and culture differences.
In fact, I’ve been thinking so much about that, that this autumn I decided to bite the bullet and take a political alignment test. Well, I say “a test” — I really mean three different ones, because what’s the point seeing which awful human you’re closely related to once, when you can do it multiple times (it also helps to avoid bias, but priorities people!)
My last post was also quite a political one, but it focussed on one key issue of the environment, and our attitude towards it in the face of technological development.
The first test told me I was a social libertarian; the second was on actual specific policies, and suggested I would follow postwar thinking, and somewhat ironically, Disraeli too. And the third said my closest political home on Earth was a Kenyan opposition party (The Orange Democratic Movement), which I think says more about the test than it does about me.
What I actually took from it though was that Disraeli’s problem is my problem. He was economically radical, but rooted in culture, which seems like an impossible mix for modern political labels — so much so we had to invent the label of “One Nation” just for him. I don’t especially have a label either, at least I haven’t found one that fits yet, and I don’t think that’s exactly a bad thing. When we try to apply a category to something as changeable and human as our opinions, we just end up with more disinformation, just like with Disraeli.
Next time on Encrypted Pigeons: I go deep undercover within the Orange Democratic Party to discover the citrus secrets of their rise to power. 😂