Economical with the truth explained

To be economical with the truth literally means to avoid revealing too much of the truth. While the idea may have an approbatory sense of prudence or diplomacy, the phrase is often either used euphemistically to denote dissimulation (misleading by withholding pertinent information) or else used ironically to mean outright lying. The term parsimonious with the truth is also sometimes used in the same way.[1]

Origins

The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations[2] and Kenneth Rose[3] trace the idea to Edmund Burke, the first of whose Letters on a Regicide Peace, written in 1795 and published in 1796, included:[4] [5]

The religious sense of "economy" was applied to religious truth by John Henry Newman, based on Jesus' injunction not to cast pearls before swine.[6] Newman advocated "cautious dispensation of the truth, after the manner of a discreet and vigilant steward" while being "careful ever to maintain substantial truth".[7] Mental reservation is a somewhat related idea also associated with Roman Catholic ethics.

A jocular reference to the basic concept was made by Mark Twain in Following the Equator in 1897:[8] [9]

The precise phrase "economical with the truth" is attested from 1897.[10] [11] It was used in the New Zealand House of Representatives in 1923,[12] and the House of Commons of Canada in 1926;[13] "over-economical with the truth" was used in the British House of Commons in 1968.[14] In Paul Brickhill's 1950 book The Great Escape, the phrase is an ironic description of the testimony of an interrogated Gestapo officer.[15]

Alan Durant of Middlesex University describes the phrase prior to 1986 as having "extremely restricted currency" and as a rule used in allusion to either Burke or Twain.[16]

Political catchphrase

"Economical with the truth" became a political catchphrase in the United Kingdom in 1986 during the Spycatcher trial in the Australian Supreme Court of New South Wales, when Robert Armstrong, the UK Cabinet Secretary, was questioned by then-barrister Malcolm Turnbull, and described a letter thus:[17]

Bob Ellis wrote that the audience had laughed at "bent untruth", and that Armstrong expected a laugh for "economical with the truth" but got none.[18] Political opponents of the government's actions in the Spycatcher case derided Armstrong's distinction.

In 1992, when Alan Clark was questioned at the Old Bailey by Geoffrey Robertson in an Arms-to-Iraq case, he accounted for the discrepancies between his testimony and statements he had made previously. His response became notorious:[19] [20]

Alan Durant was an expert witness in a 1992 libel suit brought by a man who had been described as "economical with the truth". The defendant claimed the words did not imply the plaintiff was a liar. Durant, after examining a corpus of uses of the phrase, felt that lying had become the default meaning, but might be over-ridden based on the context. The earlier allusion to Burke or Twain was no longer common. The libel suit was settled out of court.[21]

See also

References

Sources

Footnotes

Notes and References

  1. News: Hencke . David . Tobacco giant in illicit sales query . 24 April 2022 . The Guardian . 20 June 2002 . en.
  2. https://books.google.com/books?id=rjLTsncFKCgC&pg=PA14 Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations 2007, p. 14
  3. News: Francis . Beckett . 14 April 2003. A perfect spy. subscription . NewStatesman. "... Rose points out indignantly, goes back to Edmund Burke."
  4. Book: Burke, Edmund . https://archive.org/stream/twolettersaddres00burkuoft#page/n142/mode/1up . 137 . 1796 . London . . Two letters addressed to a member of the present Parliament, on the proposals for peace with the regicide directory of France . Letter I . Edmund Burke .
  5. Book: Burke, Edmund . Foreword by Francis Canavan. Letters on a Regicide Peace [1795]. http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/658#Burke_0005-03_232. A New Imprint of the Payne . Select Works of Edmund Burke. 3. 1999. Liberty Fund. 151. Letter I: On the Overtures of Peace . 1878. Edward John Payne . Edward John . Payne. Indianapolis.
  6. Book: Shell, Marc. The Economy of Literature. 16 April 2015. 1 September 1993. JHU Press. 9780801846946. 106.
  7. Web site: Apologia pro Vita Sua (1865) – Note F. On Page 269. The Economy. Newman. John Henry. 1865. Newman Reader. 16 April 2015.
  8. Web site: Following the Equator: Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar. Twain. Mark. 1897. Mark Twain in His Times. University of Virginia. 16 April 2015.
  9. Book: Leavenworth, Charles S.. The Arrow War with China . https://archive.org/stream/cu31924023144060#page/n227/mode/1up . 1901. Sampson Low, Marston & Co. . London. 208. The Dawn of Peace. Mark Twain once said, " Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it ! " But there is no necessity to be economical with the truth about the motives of the Cabinets of the world..
  10. 14 January 1897. The Iron Age. Chilton Company. 57. 28. The Iron and Metal Trades; Birmingham . If you can't say its dead dull with them, one can say without being economical with the truth that they are in a condition of "masterly inactivity." .
  11. 12 June 1897. The Weekly Underwriter. 56. 24. 413. The insurance superintendent of Kansas is said to be very economical with the truth. That certainly is not because of his reticence for he is much given to words. . [McNall, Superintendent, Scolds the Insurance Press]].
  12. Book: Parliamentary Debates: House of Representatives. 26 June 1923. New Zealand. 299. I would advise them to think of this : that it is not well to be too economical with the truth – nothing should be suppressed..
  13. Web site: House of Commons Debates . Chaplin. Alexander Dew. Alexander Dew Chaplin. 5 May 1926. 3137. Now, these triplets of truth are very economical with the truth, and if they made such statements in any private business they would not last long.. 16 April 2015.
  14. Web site: PRIME MINISTER (TELEVISION BROADCAST). Dalkeith. Earl of. 4 July 1968. HC Deb. would he openly admit that he either made a gross miscalculation, misled the people or at best had been over-economical with the truth? . John Scott, 9th Duke of Buccleuch . y. vol 767 c1690. 16 April 2015.
  15. Book: Brickhill . Paul . The Great Escape . 1950 . 2000 . Cassell . London . 256 . 9780304356874 . https://archive.org/details/greatescape0000bric_w7l5/page/256 . registration . Aftermath . the Russians took him to see Scharpwinkel, a dark, ruthless man whom the Russians persuaded to speak. Though Scharpwinkel himself was economical with the truth, the details he gave implicated Wielen, and ... bit by bit the truth came out. .
  16. Durant 1996, p.4
  17. Durant 1996, pp.4–5
  18. Book: Ellis, Bob. And So it Went. 16 April 2015. 4 May 2009. Penguin Books Limited. 9780857966025. 150.
  19. Book: Trewin, Ion. Ion Trewin . Alan Clark: The Biography. https://books.google.com/books?id=CFVvSAaTANMC&pg=PT312. 16 April 2015. 14 September 2009. Orion. 9780297857822. Ch. 19: Behind the actualité.
  20. https://books.google.com/books?id=rjLTsncFKCgC&pg=PA70 Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations 2007, p. 70
  21. Durant 1996

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