Steve Sailer's item on SuperFreakonomics quotes Stephen Dubner as saying "a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." an old saying that gets a lot of kicking around in Terry Pratchett's novel The Truth
"Truth is female, since truth is beauty rather than handsomeness; this, Ridcully reflected as the Council grumbled in, would certainly explain the saying that a lie could run around the world before Truth has got its, correction, her boots on, since she would have to choose which pair-the idea that any woman in a position to choose would have just one pair of boots being beyond rational belief. Indeed, as a goddess she would have lots of shoes, and thus many choices: comfy shoes for home truths, hobnail boots for unpleasant truths, simple clogs for universal truths and possibly some kind of slipper for self-evident truth."
