U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, “The moon is more important than the sun as the moon gives us light at night when it is dark…

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., didn’t say the moon is more useful than the sun, and neither did U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

But the New York Democrat is credited with the quote in a recent Facebook post. 

“The moon is more important than the sun as the moon gives us light at night when it is dark out. The sun only gives us light during the day when it is already light out,” reads quoted text overlaying a photo of Ocasio-Cortez. 

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

We found no evidence that Ocasio-Cortez said this. It doesn’t appear in her social media channels or press releases.  We also found no news coverage attributing the statement to the representative. 

In January, Snopes fact-checked a claim that Boebert made a similar statement (she didn’t), and found that such a sentiment has circulated for at least a century. In 1875, a British newspaper attributed it to “an Irishman.”

We rate claims Ocasio-Cortez said this False.