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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


JOAN OF ARC

Whatever thing men call great, look for it in Joan of Arc, and there you will find it.
- Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc

It took six thousand years to produce her; her like will not be seen in the earth again in fifty thousand.
- Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc

She is easily and by far the most extraordinary person the human race has ever produced.
- "Saint Joan of Arc"


1895 poster from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Privately, I myself never had a high opinion of Joan's Voices -- I mean in some respects -- but that they were devils I do not believe. I think they were saints, holy & pure & well meaning, but with the saint's natural incapacity for business. Whatever a saint is, he is not clever. There are acres of history to prove it. ... The voices meant Joan nothing but good, & I am sure they did the very best they could with their equipment; but I also feel sure that if they had let her alone her matters would sometimes have gone much better. Remember, these things I have been saying are privacies -- let them go no further; for I have no more desire to be damned than another.
- unpublished passage from Joan of Arc manuscript, quoted in Mark Twain: A Literary Life by Everett Emerson, pp. 211-212

For more on Joan of Arc see Ben D. Kennedy's site:
http://www.maidofheaven.com


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