At least he's consistent

Mark Twain died on this day in 1910.

"All the talk about tolerance, in anything or anywhere, is plainly a gentle lie," Twain wrote. "It does not exist. "It is in no man's heart; but it unconsciously, and by moss-grown inherited habit, drivels and slobbers from all men's lips.

"Intolerance is everything for oneself, and nothing for the other person. The mainspring of man's nature is just that — selfishness.

"Let us skip the other lies, for brevity's sake. To consider them would prove nothing, except that man is what he is — loving toward his own, lovable to his own — his family, his friends — and otherwise the buzzing, busy, trivial enemy of his race — who tarries his little day, does his little dirt, commends himself to God, and then goes out into the darkness, to return no more, and send no messages back — selfish even in death.



For more about Twain's death, visit Farewells