Never get into an argument with an idiot. Mark Twain: Never argue with idiots

Men, never fight women.
Both victory and defeat will be a shame for you.

Never complain about things your parents couldn't give you. Perhaps they gave you everything they had. Each of you is deeply indebted to them.

Real men never take offense at women. They just wait for them to calm down and continue to love them further.

Never complain about things your parents couldn't give you. Perhaps they gave you everything they had. Each of you is deeply indebted to them. Take care of your parents.

Before spending huge money on defense, you need to create for people the standard of living that they want to protect.

The clever are not so much looking for loneliness as they avoid the fuss created by fools.

Most people do not listen to you with a desire to understand, they listen to you with a desire to respond.

We draw our own world. Never say "I'm not doing well," because words, like caustic ink, are eaten into the pages of a book.
Believe me, you are doing well :)

Experience is called experience because it is not always known what the result will be.

The famous writer was born in a small town in Florida (Missouri, one of the 15 slave states in the South) on November 30, 1835, into the large family of John and Jane Clemens.

Mark Twain - short biography in quotes and aphorisms

As a child, Mark Twain was a mischievous tomboy, almost the same as the heroes of his future books - Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (by the way, then the writer will make friends with the son of a local drunkard - Tom, whom he will describe in the novel). Already from the age of nine, Twain became addicted to smoking and, at the head of a small group of the same pranksters, skipped lessons. It is no coincidence that later he will write about himself:

• I never let school interfere with my education

And this is absolutely true. The carefree life ended at about 12 years old when my father died of pneumonia. Barely grown up boy (however, like his older brother), to help the family got a job in the printing house of a local newspaper, where he worked as a typesetter, and then even wrote notes. But despite the fact that in childhood Mark Twain did not receive a decent education, his lively mind strove for knowledge and he found it in public libraries.

Before inventing Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer and even taking the pseudonym "Mark Twain", Samuel Clemens tried his hand at being a pilot (as a child, he spent a lot of time on the Mississippi River, fascinated by the movement of waves and steamers). And his pseudonym mark twain - a cry signifying that the minimum depth, suitable for the passage of river vessels, has been reached. Since the river has always held a special place in the writer's heart, he liked his work, as well as the intriguing characters that come across on the way. The people he met were happy to satisfy his spiritual hunger with a hefty portion of entertaining stories, many of which found shelter in the book "Life on the Mississippi." Unfortunately, here on the river one of the most powerful tragedies in the life of the writer took place - he convinced his younger brother Henry to become a pilot as well. But the ship "Pennsylvania", where Henry was training, exploded, and a few days later the young man died in hospital from serious injuries. Mark Twain blamed himself for his brother's death and listened with bitterness to congratulations that he was not on board ("God forgive them, for they do not know what they say").

The Civil War, which broke out in 1861, had a particular influence on the writer's convictions. At the dawn of his journalistic career, Southerner Mark Twain was rather condescending to slavery (although his older brother Orion was an abolitionist and sided with Abraham Lincoln, the American politician who led the struggle for the emancipation of slaves). But after surviving a tragic civil war in which his native South was destroyed by the North and which claimed many lives and destroyed much of what Twain believed in, he became angry with those in power for both his upbringing and their hypocrisy, which allowed the use of idealism and patriotic feelings. to start a war. Frustrated, he notes in his notebook:

• It's great that America was discovered, but it would be much more wonderful if Columbus sailed by

After surviving the Civil War, Mark Twain became convinced that whites owe a debt to blacks. Outraged by the senseless violence of the vigilantes, Twain will write an accusatory pamphlet - "The United Lynching States." True, this will happen much later, at the very end of his life. In the meantime, the Civil War (in which the writer even spent several weeks fighting on the side of the Southerners), which destroyed the private shipping company, put an end to Mark Twain's pilotage career. And he left for the mining town of Virginia City, Nevada, where his older brother was promoted to assistant governor. There, he devoted himself for a while to the mining industry, and then began working as a reporter for a large newspaper, where, although he wrote a number of truthful articles, he earned a reputation as a joker by publishing various hoaxes. Then he made a number of conclusions about human nature:

• April 1 is a day that reminds us of who we are for all the other 364 days

One of the most famous hoaxes by Mark Twain is a note about the allegedly found petrified man. As the author himself writes: "The inhabitants of Nevada and California literally raved about extraordinary fossils and other natural wonders. It was difficult to find a newspaper that did not mention one or two great discoveries of this kind. And here I am, the newly minted editor of the local news department ... so that put an end to this hobby ... decided to make fun of him extremely subtly ... So, I reported that ... a fossil person was discovered and that all the scientists living nearby had arrived (it is known that within fifty miles there is not a single living soul, except for a handful Indians dying of hunger) ... and agreed that this man had been in a state of complete petrification for over three hundred years. "

Mark Twain humorously described the pose of the mummy itself: “The body was in a sitting position, and leaned against the stones; the expression of the stone mummy was pensive, the safety was perfect, even including the left leg, which was wooden ... the thumb of the right hand rested on the nose, the left thumb supported the chin. " All this was accompanied by an unequivocally satirical subtext, but ... "apparently, I did it too subtly, because no one noticed that it was satire." The article not only did not surprise the residents of the city, but even for several months was reprinted in various American newspapers, and then it was published in a major London magazine! It is really noticed:

• It is easier to fool people than to convince them that they are fooled.

As you can see, Mark Twain sarcastically looked at human ignorance and gullibility. He was personally acquainted with Nikola Tesla (the most famous electrical engineer and inventor) and spent a lot of time in his laboratory, putting experiments and experiments together as a scientist. Maybe that's why the writer all his life with a great deal of skepticism related not only to paranormal phenomena, but also to various newfangled trends in science. So Mark Twain was one of the first to ridicule phrenology - a popular antiscientific theory in the 19th century that the structure of a person's skull can be judged on his mental qualities. The writer twice visited the then "luminary" of this pseudoscience Lorenzo Fowler, both times under different fictitious names. As Mark Twain himself writes, "He looked at my heights and troughs, and gave me a graph ... I waited for three months and went to Fowler again. The new graph contained details of my character, but had no recognizable resemblance to the previous one." Perhaps after this visit, Mark Twain will remark:

• Noise proves nothing. A chicken that has laid an egg often fusses as if it has laid down a small planet.

• Never argue with idiots. You will descend to their level, where they will crush you with their experience.

By the way, the writer had a passion not only for science, but also for technical innovations and bought them with pleasure, despite the price. So he almost immediately bought a telephone, invented in 1876 for his home in Connecticut. Mark Twain will say about another of his addictions - smoking tobacco in his characteristic satirical manner:

• Quitting smoking is easy. I myself have thrown a hundred times

Mark Twain has been married for 30 years with one single woman - his beloved wife Olivia (who, by the way, edited her husband's books and articles), who bore him four children. Perhaps they lived so long also because, as Mark Twain himself wrote:

• When my wife and I disagree, we usually do what she wants. The wife calls it a compromise

In the city of Hannibal (Missouri), where at the age of four Mark Twain moved with his family and the river, the streets and inhabitants of which are forever captured in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn", a bridge named after the writer was built and the caves that he explored with local tomboys were preserved ... And in the city of Hartford (Connecticut) there is still a house where Mark Twain lived and wrote his most famous works since 1874 (now there is a museum named after him). The writer, who had dreamed of getting out of poverty since childhood, could afford a rich Victorian house only after he got married (Olivia was a very wealthy woman, unlike Twain, for whom writing and journalistic fees did not bring much money). But - shut up evil tongues - there was no calculation in his marriage, only sincere love, which connected two hearts not only until "until death do us part", but also after. Having lost his Olivia, the writer no longer married, although there were those who wanted to lead him down the aisle.

Creation. Mark Twain and his works

Ernest Hemingway noted that all modern American literature came out of one book by Mark Twain - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Also among the famous works of the writer it is worth noting "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "The Prince and the Pauper", "The Yankees from Connecticut at the Court of King Arthur" and the collection of autobiographical stories "Life on the Mississippi". Unfortunately, not all the works of the great writer were published, many manuscripts were not accepted because of their impudent content, some of them were banned from publication by the author himself. And finally, I want to add to the short biography of Mark Twain some quotes that very correctly interpret human nature:

• Once in a lifetime, luck knocks on the door of every person, but he usually sits in the nearest beer hall at this time and does not hear any knocking

• Each person, like the moon, has his own unlit side, which he does not show to anyone.

• Those who do not know where they are going will be very surprised if they find themselves in the wrong place.

• If the friendship is over, then it never existed.

• The banker is the person who will lend you an umbrella on sunny days to pick it up as soon as it starts raining

Mark Twain said:

Never argue with idiots, you will sink to their level, where they will crush you with their experience.

In general, Mark Twain was an interesting person and a good writer. The more I live, the more I am convinced of the correctness of his words.

You can overcome the chaos around you, but you cannot overcome the chaos in the head of another person. Alas, this is not possible. If your interlocutor is not inclined to conduct a discussion following logic, you should immediately end the conversation and continue to avoid communicating with such a person.

Because only logic determines the essence of things. It's not about materialism. The point is in the laws of cause and effect that determine what happens to us and around us.

It's funny, but any religion is also built on logic. Of course, in the case of religion, unprovable things are taken for granted. This is how religion differs from science - in the latter, a repeatedly proven fact that does not require proof is taken as an axiom. Just so as not to waste time. In religion, however, it is somewhat different. Need to accept on faith a fact that has no proof, and in fact is not a fact. This is necessary because this fact serves as a foundation for building further logical chains. Otherwise, a dispute will constantly arise between believers, for example, whether there is a God or not. But the believers agree that "God exists, he is a supreme being, incapable of error, and we believe in it"... Then they can argue for as long as they want about what can be eaten during fasting or whether it is possible to wear a hat to church. But the first fact they recognize makes them a community, people of shared convictions. Further, believers agree that the basic laws, which God gave them, in whom they believe, are written in a certain sacred book. This brings them together even more, because they begin to follow a single logical chain. God exists, he gave us laws, these laws are true. The more common facts the interlocutors recognize, the more likely they will be able to agree and interact.

Unfortunately, in our life there are often people in whom there is “nothing sacred”. What does it mean? This means there is complete chaos in their heads and they do not have the ability to build logical chains. They have no basic postulates, today they believe in gravity, and tomorrow they will tell you that it does not exist. No amount of scientific arguments and examples can overcome the dense ignorance of the self-confident idiot. At best, your interaction with such people will be reduced to the constant proof of the axioms known to the whole world. At times, you will even feel like you are winning. But it will always be a game on the field of an idiot, where the rules change independently of you or him. There is no logic. Chaos.

My advice to you. Avoid idiots.