In order to be a leader, a man must have followers to have followers, a leader must have their confidence. For more on the controversy, see Mysterious Stranger.ĮRROR ALERT: A quotation commonly attributed to Twain (“The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter”) is clearly an abridged version of the passage in The Mysterious Stranger. A 1916 edition put together by Albert Beigelow Paine was long believed to be an authentic version, but in the 1960s Twain scholars discovered problems with Paine’s manuscript, including some fraudulent passages written by Paine himself. The Mysterious Stranger was Twain’s final novel, begun in 1897, written in bits and pieces over the decades, and unfinished at his death in 1910. As a race, do you ever use it at all? No you lack sense and the courage.” Do you ever use that one? No you leave it lying rusting. You are always fussing and fighting with your other weapons. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution-these can lift at a colossal humbug-push it a little-weaken it a little, century by century: but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. “For your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon-laughter. Speaking to Theodor, the novel’s protagonist, Satan is arguing that the most effective weapon possessed by human beings is their sense of humor, but it is a weapon they rarely use effectively. QUOTE NOTE: The observation comes from a young Satan, a direct descendant of the biblical Satan. Mark Twain, “The Chronicle of Young Satan,” in The Mysterious Stranger (1916)
0 kommentar(er)
