The Eternally Timely Mr. Twain
Posted on 2010.02.19 at 14:34Current Mood:
full
Current Music: The Beat Goes On - Sonny & Cher
I’ve quoted Mark Twain in other postings, but I’m particularly struck today at how very modern a person he was, and how little we have changed in the past century. Mr. Clemens, the spotlight is yours:
“We like to read about rich people in the newspapers; the papers know it, and they do their best to keep this appetite liberally fed.”
Twain, referring to George Washington: “He was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He would not even lie.”
Twain on war: “Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”
“We like to read about rich people in the newspapers; the papers know it, and they do their best to keep this appetite liberally fed.”
Twain, referring to George Washington: “He was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He would not even lie.”
Twain on war: “Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”
