From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Mon Jun 16 2003 - 11:10:46 MDT
Jeff Davis offers a quotation:
> "...if I thought myself prejudiced against the Jew, I
> should hold it fairest to leave this subject to a
> person not crippled in that way. But I think I have no
> such prejudice.
> ...
> I have no special regard for Satan; but, I can
> at least claim that I have no prejudice against him.
> It may even be that I lean a little his way, on
> account of his not having a fair show.
> ...
> A person who has for
> untold centuries maintained the imposing position of
> spiritual head of four-fifths of the human race, and
> political head of the whole of it, must be granted the
> possession of executive abilities of the loftiest
> order.
I haven't read this quote, but from the content and style it is clearly
Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. Clemens' nonfiction writings are
marvelously refreshing in their unmitigated cynicism. Another delightful
curmudgeon of the same era is HL Mencken.
Twain does of course depart from his claimed impartiality in the quote
Jeff offered, in a surprisingly timely comment:
> All religions
> issue bibles against him, and say the most injurious
> things about him, but we never hear his side. We have
> none but the evidence for the prosecution, and yet we
> have rendered the verdict. To my mind, this is
> irregular. It is un-English; it is un-American; it is
> French.
I'm surprised the Bush administration didn't dust off this quote for
their anti-France rhetoric. OTOH the fact that it is used in the context
of defending Satan was probably disqualifying.
Hal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Jun 16 2003 - 11:22:42 MDT