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Directory of Mark Twain's maxims, quotations, and various opinions:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

BOYS

There comes a time in every rightly-constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

We think boys are rude, unsensitive animals but it is not so in all cases. Each boy has one or two sensitive spots, and if you can find out where they are located you have only to touch them and you can scorch him as with fire.
- Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 (2010)
AI image created by Barbara Schmidt

Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.
- Life on the Mississippi
AI image created by Barbara Schmidt

14 West 10th Street.
Nov. 30 [1900]

Dear Madam:

I know I ought to respect my duty & perform it, but I am weak & faithless where boys are concerned, & I can't help secretly approving pretty bad & noisy ones, though I do object to the kind that ring door-bells. My family try to get me to stop the boys from holding conventions on the front steps, but I basely shirk out of it, because I think the boys enjoy it. And I believe I enjoy it a little, too, because it pesters the family.

My wife has been complaining to me this evening about the boys on the front steps, & under compulsion I have made some promises. But I am very forgetful, now that I am older & my sense of duty getting spongy.

Very truly yours,
S. L. Clemens
Text of original letter that differs slightly from the version published in MARK TWAIN'S LETTERS, Vol. 2, (1917) 		1918 silent fillm still
Robert Gordon and Jack Pickford
in 1918 silent film HUCK AND TOM.
From the Dave Thomson collection.




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