WIST Quotations

Twain, Mark -- Note (1897-05-31), paraphrased

Dave — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 22:49:20 +0000

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Note (1897-05-31), paraphrased
(Source)

This was based on a statement Mark Twain gave to Frank Marshall White, a British correspondent of the New York Journal (later misremembered by Twain as the New York Evening Sun). White had received a cable from America on 1897-05-28 to get information that Twain was on his deathbed. White tracked him down in London and gave a written inquiry. Twain wrote out a note (with a number of emendations) saying:

James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness; the report of my death was an exaggeration.

White's article with the response was published on the front page of the Journal on 1897-06-02. The longhand note is still preserved. Twain also recorded it in his notebook that same day.

In 1906, Twain recalled the incident for his memoir that he told the reporter (verbally), "Say the report is exaggerated." On retyping the manuscript 1906-04-03, he scribbled the word "greatly" in front of "exaggerated," and it was published that way in "Chapters from My Autobiography," The North American Review, Vol. 183, No. 599 (1906-09-21).

In Albert B. Paine's Mark Twain, a Biography, Vol. 2, ch. 197 (1912), the story is that Twain told the correspondent, "Just say the report of my death has been grossly exaggerated." In the 1935 edition, this was changed to the text from the original note.

Bernard DeVoto's 1940 Twain autobiography, Mark Twain in Eruption, uses the North American Review version, without the "greatly."

Further discussion and details:

Whedon, Joss -- Tweet (3 Oct 2014)

Dave — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 19:27:09 +0000

He died doing what he loved most: not being dead.

Joss Whedon (b. 1964) American screenwriter, author, producer [Joseph Hill Whedon]
Tweet (3 Oct 2014)
(Source)

Kennedy, Robert F. -- Interview with David Frost (1968)

Dave — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 13:11:44 +0000

Something about the fact that I made some contribution to either my country, or those who were less well off. I think back to what Camus wrote about the fact that perhaps this world is a world in which children suffer, but we can lessen the number of suffering children, and if you do not do this, then who will do this? I’d like to feel that I’d done something to lessen that suffering.

Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968) American politician
Interview with David Frost (1968)

In an interview a month before he was assassinated, about how his obituary should read. See Camus.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward George -- Letter to F. T. Mappin (25 Sep 1855)

Dave — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 16:08:10 +0000

For I know not why we should delay our tokens of respect to those who deserve them, until the heart that our sympathy could have gladdened has ceased to beat. As men cannot read the epitaphs inscribed upon the marble that covers them, so the tombs that we erect to virtue often only prove our repentance that we neglected it when with us.

Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) English novelist and politician
Letter to F. T. Mappin (25 Sep 1855)
(Source)

Quoted in The Illustrated London News, Vol. 27 (6 Oct 1855)

Twain, Mark -- The Tragedy of Pudd’n’head Wilson, ch. 6 (1894)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Tragedy of Pudd’n’head Wilson, ch. 6 (1894)

Sometimes given: "Let us endeavor so to live that ..."