Careful Words

facts (n.)

For twelve honest men have decided the cause,

Who are judges alike of the facts and the laws.

William Pulteney (1682-1764): The Honest Jury.

  Time dissipates to shining ether the solid angularity of facts.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): Essays. First Series. History.

Facts are stubborn things.

Tobias Smollett (1721-1771): Translation of Gil Blas. Book x. Chap. 1.

Facts are stubborn things.

Alain René Le Sage (1668-1747): Gil Blas. Book x. Chap. i.

His deeds inimitable, like the sea

That shuts still as it opes, and leaves no tracts

Nor prints of precedent for poor men's facts.

George Chapman (1557-1634): Bussy D'Ambois. Act i. Sc. 1.

  The Right Honorable gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816): Speech in Reply to Mr. Dundas. Sheridaniana.