Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“Tell the truth or trump—but get the trick.”
- Date
- 1894
- Local voice
- Epigraph / fictional source voice · Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar
Meaning of “Tell the truth or trump—but get the trick.”
The joke turns moral advice into card-table strategy, making the line funny precisely because truth and tactical winning are compressed into one impossible-sounding rule.
Where does it come from?
Pudd’nhead Wilson, Chapter I epigraph; one of the fictional Calendar maxims Twain places before the chapter.
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.
