History is a distillation of Rumour.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian

The French Revolution: A History, Part 1, Book 7, ch. 5 (1.7.5) (1837)
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The original is actually embedded in this sentence:

Remarkable [Usher] Maillard, if fame were not an accident, and History a distillation of Rumour, how remarkable wert thou!