In argument, truth always prevails finally in politics, falsehood always.

Landor draws a bleak distinction between two arenas of persuasion. In genuine argument—where the aim is understanding and the standards are reason and evidence—truth may be delayed but tends to assert itself “finally.” Politics, by contrast, is portrayed as a contest for power in which outcomes are decided less by what is true than by what is useful, repeatable, or emotionally mobilizing; hence “falsehood always” prevails. The aphorism is not a literal claim that truth never wins politically, but a satiric compression of a recurring pattern: political incentives reward simplification, scapegoating, and strategic misrepresentation. Its sting comes from treating this as structural, not merely a matter of individual dishonesty.