History Is A Set Of Lies

Recorded in Emmanuel de Las Cases' Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène (1823), the journal-memoir of Napoleon's exile on Saint Helena from 1815. Napoleon's actual French words are closer to "une fable convenue" — "an agreed-upon fable" — and he reportedly disclaimed originality for the thought, suggesting it was a common saying. The sharper "set of lies" formulation is a later paraphrase. Quote Investigator traces the earliest similar phrasing to a 1724 essay by Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle.