“One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.”
- Date
- 1894
- Attribution
- Source identified
- Voice / speaker
- Epigraph / fictional source voice · Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar
What does this quote mean?
The familiar nine-lives saying becomes a joke about falsehood multiplying beyond control, suggesting that lies can survive correction and keep producing consequences.
Where does it come from?
Pudd’nhead Wilson, Chapter VII epigraph; the cat-and-lie comparison is one of the Calendar aphorisms.
Who voices the line?
Epigraph / fictional source voice · Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar. Twain presents this wording as a chapter-epigraph Calendar maxim. The Calendar is a fictional framing device / source voice rather than uncomplicated autobiography by Twain.
The source author and the local speaker can be different, especially in fiction, drama, dialogue and poetry.
How should this attribution be read?
This wording is connected with the named source shown above. Translations and editions can vary, so consult the source note when exact wording matters.