‘T is strange — but true; for truth is always strange;
Stranger than fiction; if it could be told,
How much would novels gain by the exchange!
How differently the world would men behold!

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet

Don Juan, Canto 14, st. 101 (1823)
    (Source)

Apparent origin of the phrase "Truth is stranger than fiction."