Fun Trivia : Twain, Mark

Structure Sub-topic of: Individual Authors Quizzes Interesting Questions, Facts and Information There are a total of 10 general entries. Special Topics A Life of Twain Life and Works of Sam Clemens The Life of Samuel Clemens

Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information

Twain, Mark

On the Topic of truth "Mark Twain's Notebook" had this to say, "Familiarity breeds contempt. How accurate that is. The reason we hold truth in such respect is because we have so little opportunity to get familiar with it." In his autobiography, what sardonic opinion did Twain express regarding the telling of untruths?

The TAO of Mark Twain


Carlyle said "a lie cannot live." It shows that he did not know how to tell them.. The "terminological inexactitude" quote that Alexander Haig uttered may represent the "dead on arrival" sort of lie about which Carlyle spoke. I doubt that Sam Clemens would ever have written an affected metaphor such as Aleister Crowley's "child of fear". It seemed to me that Twain could plausibly have written the Steven Soderbergh's "alcoholism" quote; therefore it served as my distracter for this question.



Mark Twain often functioned as a critic and could be both scathing and graphic. About a little known author he had this to say: "There is humor in Dod Grile, but for every laugh that is in his book there are five blushes, ten shudders and a vomit. The laugh is too expensive." About which well-known author did Twain express a desire "to dig (the author) up and beat (the author) over the skull with (the author's) own shin-bone"?

The TAO of Mark Twain


Jane Austen. Jane Austen's carefully crafted and elegantly phrased accounts of England's privileged class would seem to be the antithesis of Twain's rough and tumble novels. The creator of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer no doubt loathed Austen's Elisabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. Twain avowed, "Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone." Twain also opined, "Jane is entirely impossible. It seems a great pity that they allowed her to die a natural death."



Writing on the topic of manners in an essay entitled "On the Decay of the Art of Lying Speech", the usually plainspoken Twain demonstrates his ability to assume a loftier tone without losing his "bite". What he has to say on the subject of manners should still allow you to distinguish Twain's quotation from those of Lord Chesterfield, Jonathan Swift and Emily Post. Which of the follow quotes is attributable to Mark Twain?

The TAO of Mark Twain


The highest perfection of politeness is only a beautiful edifice, built, from the base to the dome, of graceful and gilded forms of charitable and unselfish lying.. In his notebook Mark Twain tells us, "Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person." In 1923, in "Marienbad--A Health Factory", Twain suggests a method for dealing with unmannerly behavior in others. Twain writes, "It is a mistake that there is no bath that will cure people's manners. But drowning would help."



Mark Twain lived during the era in which scientists became more trusted than clergymen. The unflattering quotations below are from Dave Barry, Madame Curie, Terry Pratchett and Mark Twain. Which one is Mark Twain's?

The TAO of Mark Twain


Scientists have odious manners, except when you prop up their theory; then you can borrow money of them.. Marie Curie made the comment about sadistic scientists; Dave Barry enlightened us regarding mammary function; and Terry Pratchett reminded us of a type of gullibility not unique to scientists.



Mark Twain paid women occasional compliments. "What, Sir, would the people of the earth be without woman? They would be scarce, sir, almighty scarce," he conceded. Twain also wrote, "There is nothing comparable to the _________ of a woman. What womanly virtue was Twain recognizing in the preceding quote?

The TAO of Mark Twain


Endurance. Mark Twain expressed his view on feminine consistency in the "Gilded Age" saying, "The reason novelists nearly always fail in depicting women when they make them act, is that they let them do what they have observed some woman has done at some time or another. And that is where they make a mistake; for a woman will never do again what has been done before." With respect to agree ability Twain remarked, "Women cannot receive even the most palpably judicious suggestion without arguing it; that is, married women."