Quote#Humour & Wit
Your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective…
Quote byMark Twain · 1835–1910
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: "The Chronicle of Young Satan" (ca. 1897–1900, unfinished), published posthumously in Mark Twain's Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (1969), ed. William Merriam Gibson (pp. 165–166 in the 2005 paperback printing, ).
English (original)
Your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, Money, Persuasion, Supplication, Persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug,—push it a little—crowd it a little—weaken it a little, century by century: but only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand.
— Mark Twain
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He was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.
I haven't a particle of confidence in a man who has no redeeming petty vices whatsoever.
I'll risk forty dollars that he can outjump any frog in Calaveras county.
Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run.