Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 1387 |
| AUTHOR: | Adlai Ewing Stevenson (1900–65) |
| QUOTATION: | I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends…. That if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Martin called this remark a favorite of Stevenson’s, but it is not original with him. It was attributed to Senator Chauncey Depew, but in reverse, in John F. Parker’s “If Elected, I Promise…,” Stories and Gems of Wisdom by and About Politicians, p. 41 (1969): “If you will refrain from telling any lies about the Republican party, I’ll promise not to tell the truth about the Democrats.” Depew was a senator 1899–1911. |
| SUBJECTS: | Political parties |