Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.”
- Date
- 1894
- Local voice
- Epigraph / fictional source voice · Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar
Meaning of “One of the most striking differences between a…”
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.
Why the local voice matters
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.
