Actually it seems that quote may have originated from Johnathan Swift not Mark Twain, although almost everyone attributes it to Mark Twain. Which is rather nicely recursive given the subject of the quote.
One of my favorite quotes. Apparently they can't find the correct attribution to it, like most good quotes. I first heard it quoted from Mark Twain (/Sam Clemens).
Ah, another quote misattributed to Twain. Looks like it was submitted as a letter to The Economist in 1971 — I'll update the parent. Thanks for pointing this out!
This quote is incredibly meta because while Mark Twain is the person whom it is most often attributed, he certainly wasn't the person to first say it and may have never said it at all.[0]
I believe that the original version of that quote is, A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. In which case http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/23633.html says that it should be attributed to Mark Twain.
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