What is Man? and Other Essays
1917
Mark Twain called this his Bible. He kept it locked in his desk for years, revising endlessly, reading passages to friends in private but refusing to publish it during his lifetime. What is Man? represents the great humorist at his most uncompromisingly serious: a dark, rigorous examination of whether we are truly free or merely sophisticated machines running predetermined programs.Structured as a dialogue between an Old Man and a Young Man, the book dismantled comfortable illusions about human autonomy. The Old Man argues that we originate nothing. Not one thought. Not one impulse. Every action arises from self-satisfaction, every temperament is fixed at birth, and the future is as irrevocable as the past. It's bleak. It's relentless. And Twain builds his case with a cold logic that leaves no comfortable escape hatch.The essays that follow deepen the inquiry into morality, heredity, and the forces that shape us. What makes this book endure is not its pessimism but its honesty. Twain went to his grave refusing to soften its conclusions. For readers who know Twain only as the voice of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, this book reveals a thinker who grappled in darkness with questions most of us avoid.
Editions
X-Ray
“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 creatures that cannot.””
— Mark Twain
“It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. ””
— Mark Twain
“I am not one of those who in expressing opinions confine themselves to facts.””
— Mark Twain
“There is no such thing as material covetousness. All covetousness is spiritual. ...Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.””
— Mark Twain
“من المهد إلى اللحد لا يقوم الإنسان بأي عمل إلا ويكون الدافع إليه أولاً وقبل كل شيء هو أن يضمن لذاته راحة البال وأطمئنان النفس””
— Mark Twain
“Our consciences take NO notice of pain inflicted upon others until it reaches a point where it gives pain to US. In ALL cases without exception we are absolutely indifferent to another person's pain until his sufferings make us uncomfortable.””
— Mark Twain
Link to this book
Add a free, dofollow link to Lex on your blog, forum, syllabus, or reading list.
<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/what-is-man-and-other-essays-a9d99c85-93e5-4ea0-85cd-0bb5ce441ffb"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read What is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/what-is-man-and-other-essays-a9d99c85-93e5-4ea0-85cd-0bb5ce441ffb)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/what-is-man-and-other-essays-a9d99c85-93e5-4ea0-85cd-0bb5ce441ffb][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read What is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/what-is-man-and-other-essays-a9d99c85-93e5-4ea0-85cd-0bb5ce441ffbCite this book
Reading this edition for a paper or guide? Copy a citation.
Twain, Mark. What is Man? and Other Essays. Lex, lex-books.com/book/what-is-man-and-other-essays-a9d99c85-93e5-4ea0-85cd-0bb5ce441ffb.Twain, M. (1917). What is Man? and Other Essays. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/what-is-man-and-other-essays-a9d99c85-93e5-4ea0-85cd-0bb5ce441ffbTwain, Mark. What is Man? and Other Essays. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/what-is-man-and-other-essays-a9d99c85-93e5-4ea0-85cd-0bb5ce441ffb.
