The Sayings of Mark Twain

"It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt." – Mark Twain

This is one of my personal favorite sayings, and something that I have tried to live by for quite some time now. It was written by Mark Twain, who seems to have endless sayings and small bits of truth, all with a particularly American accent to them, if you will. He is perhaps the greatest of all American authors, and his works, as well as his truths, have withstood the test of time. He largely remains the father figure, in many respects, of American letters.

He is a fascinating figure. Mark Twain was not his real name, of course. Samuel Clemmons was his actual name, and Mark Twain was the pen name, inspired by the terms used to mark distances during his years on steam boats. They would "mark" the units of measurement by calling them out, so it sounded like this: "Mark one…..mark twain….mark three….." and so on and so forth. He seems to have taken a liking to this, and taken it as his pen name – one that continues to live on today!

That all sounds like a success story, and yet, Mark Twain/Samuel Clemmons was a figure who seemed to embody extremes. He had tremendous success on many levels, and was America's (and perhaps the world's) first real modern celebrity, if you will. His written works have achieved a measure of immortality that few ever come close to. His sayings are strong and memorable and he remains quoted to this day. He had several homes, including the very lavish house up in Hartford, Connecticut. Anybody who paid a visit there was under no illusions that this was just a typical man, living within his means. He may have been a lot of things, but that is not among them.

Yet, his life had more than it's share of tragedies and embarrassments, as well. He made fortunes, and squandered them. He has a beautiful family, and then watched each one die well before he did. He had seen slavery in the South growing up, and spoke out against it. He also saw the clouds of war that were beginning to hover over Europe not long before his own death.

All of these experiences had given him what at times could only be seen as a cynical outlook. Look at this quote, for example:

"Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world."

Or this:

"Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved."

He did not just express this for his own example, but sometimes for all of humanity:

"There are times when one would like to hang the whole human race and finish the farce."

Not exactly the sunniest outlook, right? Then again, would you disagree with him? Some would, surely. Vonnegut would later knock my socks off by saying something very similar, and claiming that possibly a majority, perhaps even a wide majority, of people would choose death if they absolutely knew that there would be no negative ramifications for them in the afterlife.

            Of course, he was known for such pessimistic one-liners, and a lot of them were quite funny.  Here is one on humanity, compared less than favorably to a canine:

            'If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man."

            Here is another sunny gem:

"Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person."

            Here is one that applies to politics and religions and all manner of powerful conspiracies by large groups of people, including modern day corporations:

            "'When whole races of peoples conspire to propagate gigantic mute lies in the interests of tyrannies and shams, why should we care anything about the trifling lies told by individuals?"

            Here is another timeless quote that is as true today as when he first expressed it, and which the world would likely be a better place if they understood the truth of this, and applied it to their own behavior:

            "We despise all reverences and all the objects of reverence which are outside the pale of our own list of sacred things. And yet, with strange inconsistency, we are shocked when other people despise and defile the things which are holy to us."

            How about this quote, which seems to talk about science, and how our academic understanding of the world was enhanced at the expense, all too often, of our sense of wonder:

            "We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that the savage has, because we know how it is made. We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter."

            About how people view themselves and the history of their own race, religion, or nation:

            "The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice."

            Of course, he himself understood how little people would be able to grasp the truth:

"I never could tell a lie that anybody would doubt, nor a truth that anybody would believe."

Here is one that is perhaps not so well known, but which remains true to this day, regarding a wide range of prejudices that we tend to hold in our hearts:

"Reverence for one's own sacred things – parents, religion, flag, laws, and respect for one's own beliefs – these are feelings which we cannot even help. They come natural to us; they are involuntary, like breathing. There is no personal merit in breathing."

A more famous one that illustrates his capacity for effective brevity was this gem:

"Faith is believing what you know ain't so."

I always find it enjoyable to turn back to Twain every now and then. One of the most brilliant short stories that I know of, and which he wrote and made sure would not get published until after his own death, was "The War Prayer". A lot of people have a hard time understanding why he would have written than, yet they do not get it. Twain felt that it was the truth, and as such, he felt that it should be published only after he had died, because the truth, according to him, only came from those already dead.

He is known for some incredible works, of course. Yet, his sayings, which I have focused on here, obviously, hold some strong value on their own, and live on, because they have an immortal quality to them. He is known best for his sense of humor, which shines through in most of his writings and sayings. So, it seems appropriate to conclude this short piece with a quote of his regarding humor:

"Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place."