Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Mark Twain
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by: phil.yaffe@yahoo.com
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by Philip Yaffe
Part 1 of an occasional series
I am a collector of quotations. I have been ever since I learned how to
write, I mean professionally, not in primary school.
I am particularly fond of what I like to call "pithy prose".
These short quotations can cover an unlimited variety of subjects: love,
religion, politics, human nature, etc. What unites them is their ability to say
more in one or two sentences than could be expressed in a thousand-word treatise.
It's like being able to pour a liter of liquid into a half-liter bottle.
They are superb examples of Mark Twain's famous dictum, "The
difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference
between lightning and a lightning bug."
In principle, all writers and public speakers are capable of producing
pithy prose, but clearly some are better at it than others.
Any collection of pithy prose must necessarily be biased in terms of
what it includes and excludes. I make no apologies for my selections, only for
the hundreds of other meritorious quotations I had to leave out.
No one will agree with all these quotations; this was not their
intention. You may even find some of them repugnant or outrageous. This was
their intention.
We seldom learn anything of value from what we already agree with. Only
those ideas that grate on our nerves can open our minds. As with oysters,
irritation can produce pearls. So if anything you are about to read annoys or
shocks you, try to think clearly and dispassionately about what it is saying.
You will either be confirmed in your current belief or shaken into re-examining
it.
Either way, you win!
This article is the first of an occasional series. In each succeeding
article, I will be offering more amusing, educating, and exasperating
quotations to your judgment. But just to be certain that we agree on what we
are talking about, here it is in a nutshell.
Pithy Prose: A quotation where at first you may not be quite certain
what it means. But when you become certain, you become equally certain that it couldn't
have been said better any other way. In short, big ideas in small packages.
If you have a better definition of pithy prose, please contact me. I
would love to hear it.
I have already mentioned Mark Twain, so I will begin with him. He offers
such a treasure trove of witty, perceptive quotations that it would be almost
unthinkable to start with anyone else.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was
a product of the American Deep South. "The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin",
and "Life on the
most popular books, clearly reflect this origin. However, like all great
authors, Mark Twain's books, essays, and other writings go far beyond
geography. They are universal.
So In no particular order, here are his pithy prose on a variety of
subjects.
1. A man
cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
2. A person
who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read.
3. Action
speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.
4. Age is an
issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
5. All
generalizations are false, including this one.
6. Always do right.
This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
7. Who prays
for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for
the one sinner that needed it most?
8. Civilization
is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.
9. Climate is
what we expect, weather is what we get.
10. Courage is
resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
11. Education
consists mainly of what we have unlearned.
12. Few things
are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
13. Good
breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little
we think of the other person.
14. I am an old
man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.
15. I can live
for two months on a good compliment.
16. I was gratified to
be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know.
17. I was seldom able
to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.
18. It isn't
those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the
parts that I do understand.
19. It is better to
keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and
remove all doubt.
20. It is
curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral
courage so rare.
21. It's no wonder that
truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.
22. Kindness is
the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
23. Let us live so that
when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
24. Man - a
creature made at the end of the week's work when God was tired.
25. Man is the
only animal that blushes - or needs to.
26. Nothing so
needs reforming as other people's habits.
27. One of the
most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine
lives.
28. Patriot:
the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering
about.
29. Patriotism is
supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
30. The difference
between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between
lightning and a lightning bug.
31. The man who
is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he
knows too little.
32. There is no
sadder sight than a young pessimist.
33. The more things are
forbidden, the more popular they become.
34. The most
interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and
then stop.
35. Thunder is good,
thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does all the work.
36. When a
person cannot deceive himself, the chances are against his being able to
deceive other people.
37. When I was younger
I could remember anything, whether it happened or not.
38. When in
doubt, tell the truth.
39. You can't
depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
A Final Word
Mark Twain is an almost inexhaustible source of pithy prose. The
quotations included here barely scratch the surface. Let me conclude with a
comment by the perhaps the only other source of pithy prose more prolific. Mark
Twain never said this, or at least I never found the quotation. But I am
certain it is something he would have liked to have said.
"Most of us prefer to disparage a person who is almost always right
rather than asking why we ourselves are almost always wrong." – Anon.
Philip Yaffe is a
former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal and a marketing communication
consultant. He currently teaches a course in good writing and good speaking in
of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a
Professional is available from Story Publishers in
(amazon.com).
For further information, contact:
Philip
Brussels
Tel: +32 (0)2 660 0405
phil.yaffe@yahoo.com, phil.yaffe@gmail.com
About the Author
Philip Yaffe is a
former writer with The Wall Street Journal and international marketing
communication consultant. He now teaches courses in persuasive communication in
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