Quotes from book
What Is Man?

What Is Man?
Mark Twain

"What Is Man?" is a short story by American writer Mark Twain, published in 1906. It is a dialogue between a Young Man and an Old Man regarding the nature of man. The title refers to Psalm 8:4, which begins "what is man, that you are mindful of him...".

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“It may be called the Master Passion—the hunger for Self-Approval.”

Mark Twain book What Is Man?

Source: What Is Man? (1906), Ch. 6

Mark Twain photo

“It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.”

Mark Twain book What Is Man?

Source: What Is Man? (1906), Ch. 6

Mark Twain photo

“The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.”

Mark Twain book What Is Man?

Source: What Is Man? (1906), Ch. 6

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