To Jenny
Good-bye! a kind good-bye, I bid you now, my friend, And though ’tis sad to speak the word, To destiny I bend
And though it be decreed by Fate That we ne’er meet again, Your image, graven on my heart, Forever shall remain.
Aye, in my heart thoult have a place, Among the friends held dear,- Nor shall the hand of Time efface The memories written there. Goodbye, S.L.C.
*written upon the death of his niece, Jennie Clemens. Only child of his brother Orion, Jennie was by all reports a sweet and pious girl who died at the age of eight from spotted fever. Twain stood vigil at her bedside as she died and her death affected him profoundly, serving as the catalyst for a famous exchange with the local newspaper in which he vented his grief and anger by excoriating both the paper and the profession of undertakers.
Twain Musings
Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
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