April 21, 1910

In Redding, Connecticut, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, most popularly known as Mark Twain, died at the age of 74 years.

"I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year [1910], and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almight has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.' "

Words from Mr. Clemens that are more than immediately relevant and appropriate:

"In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.


Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.


A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.


The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them. "