<P> Mark Twain popularized the saying in Chapters from My Autobiography, published in the North American Review in 1906 . "Figures often beguile me," he wrote, "particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force:' There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics ."' </P> <P> Alternative attributions include, among many others (for example Walter Bagehot and Arthur James Balfour) the radical English journalist and politician Henry Du Pré Labouchère (1831--1912), Jervoise Athelstane Baines, and British politician and man of letters Leonard H. Courtney, who used the phrase in 1895 and two years later became president of the Royal Statistical Society . Courtney is quoted by Baines (1896) as attributing the phrase to a "wise statesman", but he may have been referring to a future statesman rather than a past one . The phrase has also been attributed to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington . </P> <P> The earliest instance of the phrase found in print dates to a letter written in the British newspaper National Observer on June 8, 1891, published June 13, 1891, p. 93 (- 94): NATIONAL PENSIONS (To the Editor of The National Observer) London, 8 June 1891 "Sir,--It has been wittily remarked that there are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a' fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third and most aggravated is statistics . It is on statistics and on the absence of statistics that the advocate of national pensions relies ..." Later, in October 1891, as a query in Notes and Queries, the pseudonymous questioner, signing as "St Swithin", asked for the originator of the phrase, indicating common usage even at that date . The pseudonym has been attributed to Eliza Gutch . </P> <P> The American Dialect Society list archives include numerous posts by Stephen Goranson that cite research into uses soon after the above . They include: </P>

Who said there are three kinds of lies