“The weakest of all weak things is a virtue that has not been tested in the fire.”
-Mark Twain, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
Virtue is mere talk until it is tested by circumstance and displayed in action.
On Virtue in Action
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Category Archives: Mark Twain in Today’s World
On Forgiveness and Why It Means More When It Hurts
“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heal that has crushed it.”
-Mark Twain
True forgiveness only happens as a consequence of pain. If we are not inflicted with pain, or shown injustice, or injured in some way, what is there to forgive?
We are made better through the trials of life and forgiving the pain it inflicts.
On Distraction and Following Your Chosen Path
“Your road is everything that a road ought to be . . . and yet you will not stay in it half a mile, for the reason that little, seductive, mysterious roads are always branching out from it on either hand, and as these curve sharply also and hide what is beyond, you cannot resist the temptation to desert your own chosen road and explore them.”
-Mark Twain, Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion
In a world of too many choices, most of which call seductively at first only to then lead nowhere, it becomes our task to find boldness and adventure along the path chosen and not forever to chase after phantoms and speculation.
An unfocused mind flits off the mere scent of an idea. A focused one sees nothing but that one idea, and pursues it in spite of the siren call of endless distraction; there is a purpose of thought and the courage to pursue it.
On Fear, Superstition, and What Drives Nations and Souls
“Let me make the superstitions of a nation and I care not who makes its laws”
-Mark Twain, Following the Equator
Stoke the fears and superstitions of the people and the laws will bend to the hysterics of the crowd.
On Honor Not Shown
“Public shows of honor are pleasant, but private ones are pleasanter, because they are above suspicion.”
-Mark Twain, letter to Will Bowen, December 19, 1888
Don’t tell me how honorable you are. Show me.
On Congressional Debate of MoveOn.org and Rush Limbaugh
“…the smallest minds and the selfishest souls and the cowardliest hearts that God makes.”
-Mark Twain, letter fragment, 1891
MoveOn.org’s ad and most of what I hear Limbaugh say is designed to provoke. And provoke it does: hours on end of meaningless pronouncements and shortsighted platitudes, while accomplishing nothing – no binding legislative action from this legislative body – except to further the divisive nature of character assassination through partisan politics.
This isn’t what we elect a congress to do, is it?
On Intelligent Design
“It now seems plain to me that that theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one…the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.”
-Mark Twain, The Lowest Animal
A theory such as Intelligent Design seems to fall short in explaining the madness endemic in human behavior. At least that’s the way Twain saw it, especially as he grew older (and wiser).
Lest we feel any twinge of superiority to the times in which he expressed himself, a serious consideration of our world today shows that Mark Twain’s words are no less applicable now as they were then.
Mr. Clemens surely turns in his grave.
On University Degrees
“Now then, to me university degrees are unearned finds, and they bring the joy that belongs with property acquired in that way; and the money-finds and the degree-finds are just the same in number up to date–three: two from Yale and one from Missouri University.
It pleased me beyond measure when Yale made me a Master of Arts, because I didn’t know anything about art; I had another convulsion of pleasure when Yale made me a Doctor of Literature, because I was not competent to doctor anybody’s literature but my own, and couldn’t even keep my own in a healthy condition without my wife’s help. I rejoiced again when Missouri University made me a Doctor of Laws, because it was all clear profit, I not knowing anything about laws except how to evade them and not get caught.
And now at Oxford I am to be made a Doctor of Letters–all clear profit, because what I don’t know about letters would make me a mutli-millionaire if I could turn it into cash.”
Mark Twain, Autobiography
It shouldn’t be the degree that really matters, but, if the degree holder has really learned anything, what it represents.
On Politicians and Promises
“Better a broken promise than none at all.”
-Mark Twain
No good politican is worth his or her salt without a good promise or two to pacify and seduce the body politic.
Whether it can ever be kept is beside the point.
On Maintaining a Sense of History
“Many public-school children seem to know only two dates–1492 and 4th of July; and as a rule they don’t know what happened on either occasion.”
-Mark Twain
Without a true sense of history, beyond a rote recitation of dates and events, the human saga in which we find ourselves loses its context and meaning. Real progress never happens if we forget the past.