letters from the earth.
I. "man is an experiment, the other animals are another experiment. time will show whether they were worth the trouble."
II. "man is a marvelous curiosity. when he is at his very very best he is sort of a low grade nickel-plated angel; at his worst he is unspeakable, unimaginable; and first and last and all the time he is a sarcasm. yet he blandly and in all sincerity calls himself the 'noblest work of God.'"
III. "but now they could do evil--and suffer for it; now they had acquired what the church calls an invaluable possession, the moral sense; that sense which differentiates man from the beast and sets him above the beast. instead of below the beast--where one would suppose his proper place would be, since he is always foul-minded and guilty and the beast always clean-minded and innocent. it is like valuing a watch that must go wrong, above a watch that can't."
-mark twain.
II. "man is a marvelous curiosity. when he is at his very very best he is sort of a low grade nickel-plated angel; at his worst he is unspeakable, unimaginable; and first and last and all the time he is a sarcasm. yet he blandly and in all sincerity calls himself the 'noblest work of God.'"
III. "but now they could do evil--and suffer for it; now they had acquired what the church calls an invaluable possession, the moral sense; that sense which differentiates man from the beast and sets him above the beast. instead of below the beast--where one would suppose his proper place would be, since he is always foul-minded and guilty and the beast always clean-minded and innocent. it is like valuing a watch that must go wrong, above a watch that can't."
-mark twain.