“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”

—  Mark Twain

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval." by Mark Twain?
Mark Twain photo
Mark Twain 637
American author and humorist 1835–1910

Related quotes

Barbara Walters photo

“A man cannot be comfortable [or cannot be made comfortable] without his own approval.”

Barbara Walters (1929) American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality

Occasionally attributed to Walters; actually written by Mark Twain in What Is Man? and other essays (1917), p. 17.
Misattributed

Bertrand Russell photo

“There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Source: 1950s, Human Society in Ethics and Politics (1954), p. 219-220
Context: There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed.

Erving Goffman photo

“Approved attributes and their relation to face make every man his own jailer; this is a fundamental social constraint even though each man may like his cell.”

Erving Goffman (1922–1982) Sociologist, writer, academic

Erving Goffman (1967: 10), as cited in: Trevino (2003,, p. 37).
1950s-1960s

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“A will of his own in a young man without a shilling is a superfluity”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

The Monthly Magazine

G. I. Gurdjieff photo

“Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.”

G. I. Gurdjieff (1866–1949) influential spiritual teacher, Armenian philosopher, composer and writer

In Search of the Miraculous (1949)

G. K. Chesterton photo

“A modern man may disapprove of some of his sweeping reforms, and approve others; but finds it difficult not to admire even where he does not approve.”

G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English mystery novelist and Christian apologist

Said of Benito Mussolini while comparing him to Hildebrand (i. e. Pope Gregory VII), as quoted in "The Pearl of Great Price" by Robert Royal, his Introduction to "The Resurrection of Rome" by G. K. Chesterton in The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton (1990) by Vol. XXI, p. 274

Frederick Douglass photo

“No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

Speech at Civil Rights Mass Meeting, Washington, D.C. (22 October 1883).
1880s, Speech at the Civil Rights Mass Meeting (1883)
Variant: No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.

Ernest Becker photo

“Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level.”

"The Present Outcome of Psychoanalysis", p. 196
The Denial of Death (1973)

C.G. Jung photo

Related topics