Wit and Wisdom??

Blog 8

The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain

After reading the book of quotations by Mark Twain, I found it bearable. It was not as offense and rude like Juha was, but I also did not find the book to be exciting. Considering this is a class on humor and Mark Twain is supposed to be one of the funniest writers of all time, I was no as impressed as I had hoped to be. But given the book was just a bunch of quotations they may have been taken out of context. If I had read the books, speeches, or poems that the one-liners had come out of I may have been more inclined to judge the phrases as humorous. Because of the expectation that humor is associated with laughter, I pick up all of these books and assume that I am going to laugh-which is not always the case. Overall, I thought that Twain’s quotations were acceptable.

Right at the beginning of the piece I found a quote that I whole heartedly agree with. “Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it”-The Lowest Animal. I may not have found this quote exceptionally funny, but I did find it applicable to human nature. I don’t think this just applies to extreme situations such as a psychopath who gets off on killing people and witnessing their pain, but it also applies to girls who gossip. Teenage girls are notorious for spreading rumors about other people and talking behind each other’s back; this fits in with the idea of being cruel for the pleasure of doing it. They gossip because they like the feeling of having someone below them, in essence they get pleasure out of someone else’s pain.

 Some of the quotes I read, I did not agree with. Even though Twain is a well-established author I think that he does miss the mark at some times. “When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain”-Notebook. I disagree with this quote because while emotions are a necessity in any relationship, you need to think logically at times. People who search only with their heart en up getting hurt if they have nothing in common. You have to make sure that your heart matches your brain.

“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anyone”-Following the Equator”. I agree with this quote. I think it is showing how we all have secrets. We all have parts of ourselves that we can’t show to anyone else. This could even be something as small as or as simple as a flaw we believe we have. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a life altering secret-just something we believe is too dark to share with someone.

“It is by goodness of Got that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to participate in either of them”-Following the Equator. I this quote because it seems like a commentary on human nature. All too often people only remark about our freedoms when they want to make a point, not because they actually believe in our countries foundation in freedom. For instance, if someone makes an offensive comment to another person. They instantly use the claim “freedom of speech”-they don’t actually care about freedom of speech they are just using it as a crutch to stand on when they know they are wrong.

“I never could tell a lie that anyone would doubt, nor a truth that anybody would believe”-Following the Equator. This quote reminds we of those wise sayings that appear really insightful and inspiring but when you think about it, it doesn’t quite make much logical sense.