# Mark Twain quote\* **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 5, 2016, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-twain-quote/767708 "2016-10-05T15:14:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-twain-quote/767708/1 "2016-10-05T15:14:15Z")
“It’s easier to fool people than convince them they have been fooled.” Seems appropriate for these times… [sup]\*(Or so it says on the Internet, so it must be true - right?)[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-twain-quote/767708/2 "2016-10-05T15:17:25Z")
There does seem to be some doubt. But by G-d, he _should_ have said it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-twain-quote/767708/3 "2016-10-05T18:40:51Z")
I haven’t read everything by Twain, but I’ve read quite a bit (including all three volumes of his recently-released autobiography, of late), and this just doesn’t sound like him. I certainly don’t recall ever coming across it, and it’s not his typical phrasing. A quick internet search shows that a lot of places cite it, but not one gives where it comes from. This does not increase my confidence in its authenticity. I’ll give this one a Questionable at best, but I think it ain’t one of his. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-twain-quote/767708/4 "2016-10-05T18:44:52Z")
Every lame quote gains traction, once it is attributed to Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill or Yogi Berra. But those five philosophical giants actually said very few of them. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-twain-quote/767708/5 "2016-10-05T18:49:59Z")
This site can’t find it in Twain’s writings, and doesn’t believe it, either: > **[And again, more mis-attributed quotes online](http://ianchadwick.com/blog/and-again-more-mis-attibuted-quotes-online/)** > > “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.” Allegedly by Mark Twain, but unlikely, and not found in any published source I have of Twain’s quot… Wikiquotes doesn’t really buy it, either: [https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Mark\_Twain](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Mark_Twain) (Halfway down, under “unsourced”) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-twain-quote/767708/6 "2016-10-05T18:54:06Z")
This site claims the quote was first popularized in 2011: [http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new\_york\_city/entry/its\_easier\_to\_fool\_people](http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/its_easier_to_fool_people) I certainly draw a blank typing bits of it into Google Ngram Viewer. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-twain-quote/767708/7 "2016-10-05T18:57:15Z")
Google Answers says “n”. as well: > **[Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos](https://www.yahoo.com/)** > > Latest news coverage, email, free stock quotes, live scores and video are just the beginning. Discover more every day at Yahoo! (It also cites one of the sites I give above) ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-twain-quote/767708/8 "2016-10-05T19:14:54Z")
Even Yogi Berra admitted, “I never said half the things I said.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-twain-quote/767708/9 "2016-10-05T19:22:21Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Even Yogi Berra admitted, “I never said half the things I said.” 🙂 Don’t get them started! ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-twain-quote/767708/10 "2016-10-06T00:35:39Z")
I didn’t even look it up but I figured there was a good chance it wasn’t said by Sam - thus my tongue in cheek comment. I mainly posted it because it reminded me of the republicans. It just seemed the perfect sentiment. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-twain-quote/767708/11 "2016-10-06T04:08:37Z")
> [@White SIFL](#): > > I didn’t even look it up but I figured there was a good chance it wasn’t said by Sam - thus my tongue in cheek comment. I mainly posted it because it reminded me of the republicans. It just seemed the perfect sentiment. Google the search terms /quote fool/, you’ll find that there’s a perfect sentiment born every minute. Even Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations has 90 of them, all pretty applicable to the current condition. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-twain-quote/767708/12 "2016-10-07T20:32:39Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Every lame quote gains traction, once it is attributed to Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill or Yogi Berra. But those five philosophical giants actually said very few of them. It sounds better in the original [del]Russian[/del] Klingon.