lies, all lies

"After the fall of Troy, it takes Odysseus 10 years to return home. Since Troy was only a hop, a skip and a jump from Greece, do you think Penelope should have been more skeptical about her husband’s explanation for the long delay — a cabal of one-eyed, man-eating giants; a troupe composed entirely of homicidal, aquatic chantoozies; a sorceress who can turn sailors into pigs? Isn’t the whole thing kind of sketchy?"
-Joe Queenan, "There Will Be a Quiz," NYT

i resemble that statement

Aptly uttered is as good as written, an axe cannot destroy it.

To such worthlessness, pettiness, vileness a man can descend! So changed he can become! Does this resemble the truth? Everything resembles the truth, everything can happen to a man. The now ardent youth would jump back in horror if he were shown his own portrait in old age.

In all our gatherings, from the peasant community level up to all possible learned and other committees, unless they have one head to control everything, there is a great deal of confusion.

Many and various among the Russian people are the meanings of scratching one's head.

What a strange, and alluring, and transporting, and wonderful feeling is in the word: road!

Plumpness will in no way be forgiven a hero, and a great many ladies will turn away, saying: "Fie, ugly thing!"

-Nikolai Gogol, Dead Souls