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Directory of Mark Twain's maxims, quotations, and various opinions:

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CENSORSHIP

There's nobody for me to attack in this matter even with soft and gentle ridicule--and I shouldn't ever think of using a grown up weapon in this kind of a nursery. Above all, I couldn't venture to attack the clergymen whom you mention, for I have their habits and live in the same glass house which they are occupying. I am always reading immoral books on the sly, and then selfishly trying to prevent other people from having the same wicked good time.
- Letter to Denver Post dated Aug. 14, 1902; also published in NY Tribune Aug. 22, 1902 (regarding banning of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the Denver Library.)
Huck reading
Illustration by Schrodter from 1898 edition of ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN
from the Dave Thomson collection
\
But the truth is, that when a Library expels a book of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible lying around where unprotected youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it delights me and doesn't anger me.
- Letter to Mrs. F. G. Whitmore, 7 February 1907 		Dwig illustration
Illustration by "Dwig"
from the Dave Thomson
collection


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