“The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice”
-Mark Twain
The story of our past changes with each telling, and each person telling it. As such, it is best, most times, to get a second opinion.
On History
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Category Archives: Philisophy of Mark Twain
On the Value of Questioning Authority
“Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its only sure defense”
-Mark Twain
Any power, belief, idea, or proclamation can only prove its worth through contempt and, if worthwhile and right, redemption.
It is by trial that our characters, and our ideas, or forged.
On Religion, Folly, and Letting People Be
“The easy confidence with which I know another man’s religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also. I would not interfere with any one’s religion, either to strengthen it or to weaken it. I am not able to believe one’s religion can affect his hereafter one way or the other, no matter what that religion may be. But it may easily be a great comfort to him in this life–hence it is a valuable possession to him.”
I am certain that your particular religion must be folly, for I fear mine may be as well. And I also fear anyone that denies this is so.
On the Attitude of Gratitude
“I don’t care much for gratitude of the noisy, boisterous kind. Why, when some men discharge an obligation, you can hear the report for miles around.”
-Mark Twain
Quiet grace is the source of true gratitude.
On “Patriotism” and the Conscience of a Nation
“We have a bastard Patriotism, a sarcasm, a burlesque; but we have no such thing as a public conscience. Politically we are just a joke.”
We get the leaders we deserve, we rally around them and question the patriotism of anyone with the moral courage to point out that the emperor has no clothes.
This is not patriotism, and far worse avowed disloyalty, for it calls itself something for which it is not.
Did I mention that we get the leaders we deserve?