[Ads-l] apocryphal Twain

[Dan Goncharoff]

I immediately thought of the "two happiest days of a man’s life", which
Barry Popik has traced back to 1823.

DanG

On Thu, Oct 26, 2017 at 3:34 PM, Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:

> Huh:
>
> The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the
> day you find out why. – The Apocryphal Twain
>
> The Occam’s Razor of Twain attribution is, as follows: If the aphorism in
> question indicates a sentimental, nostalgic, or otherwise optimistic
> attitude towards humanity, it probably didn’t come from Twain. As Louis
> Budd put is, Twain indulged a “lifelong suspicion that the mass of mankind
> is venal, doltish, feckless, and tyrannical, that the damn fools make up a
> majority anywhere.”
>
> I've always taken the quote's "finding" to be about finding about how
> babies are made. Never thought of a "self-help"/find your purpose sort of
> meaning.
>
> On Thu, Oct 26, 2017 at 11:45 AM, MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY
> RDECOM AMRDEC (US) <william.d.mullins18.civ at mail.mil> wrote:
>
> > Possibly of interest.
> >
> > http://marktwainstudies.com/the-apocryphal-twain-the-two-
> > most-important-days-of-your-life/
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
>
> a
>
> Andy Bach,
> afbach at gmail.com
> 608 658-1890 cell
> 608 261-5738 wk
>
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