Thanks for the quoteinvestigator link... I was likewise reminded of Terry Pratchett's version, also mentioned there:
"A lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on."
It's quite amazing that the researchers essentially quantified those idioms. And it's also somewhat surprising that none of the idioms found their way into the article. :)
Indeed, I went looking for the version I was familiar with ("A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.") in order to correctly attribute it, whereupon I discovered the source of that version is unknown, so I quoted the Swift version since I it's centuries older, sourced, and I liked it best after reading them all.
"A lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on."
It's quite amazing that the researchers essentially quantified those idioms. And it's also somewhat surprising that none of the idioms found their way into the article. :)