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It used to be a good hotel, but that proves nothing — I used to be a good boy, for that matter. Both of us have lost character of late years.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Innocents Abroad, ch. 57 (1869)
(Source)
Interestingly, I found an earlier version of this quote, written 19 April 1867 and published 2 June 1867, in which Twain named the Heming Hotel rather than the Benton: http://bit.ly/2oSgIVK
Ha! A busy writer learns how to borrow from himself. I suppose he figured that nobody reading a published book by him would spot that he had lifted an anecdote from a newspaper column in distant California.