Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Mark Twain on India


Mark Twain is one of my favorite writers and I count Huck Finn as one of my favorite books. What I didn’t know was that he spent some time traveling in India! Here are a few of my favorite quotes from his time in India. I also have a new appreciation for his mustache now- it is really sweet!!!


"India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only."


"So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked."


"India has two million gods, and worships them all. In religion all other countries are paupers; India is the only millionaire."

I love all three of these for different reasons- let me know what you think! Here’s one more of his, talking of travel in general that I love:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

1 comment:

  1. Love the Twain quotes, he is always a good place to turn for insight. Good finds.

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