4/10/2023 0 Comments 10 best days of my lifeRegardless of origin or attribution, the circulation of this aphorism was relatively limited until well into the 21st century. ![]() ![]() For a variety of obvious reasons, the long-dead author of The Mysterious Stranger was neither party to this tradition, nor likely to be celebrated by it. I would venture to speculate that this passage, with it typographical and syntactical idiosyncrasies, is unlikely to have been directly or consciously “borrowed” from another writer, though the sentiment may well have been part of the Christian oral tradition in the late 20th century. The earliest source my own search yields is the short book, A Woman & Her Self-Esteem, published by the Mormon devotional writer, Anita Canfield, in 1985.Īsk yourself a most profound question: “What are the two most important days in my life?” THE DAY YOU WERE BORN and THE DAY YOU REALIZE WHY YOU WERE BORN! And why were you born? You were born to bless the lives of others. Unfortunately, I have been unable to consult this source myself, though I have no reason to doubt Dr. Campbell, Minister of the Riverside Church in New York City, who gave the relevant sermon in 1970 and published it as “Give Ye Them To Eat” in 1973. The generally dependable Quote Investigator, Garson O’Toole, traced a permutation of this aphorism to Ernest T. The aphorism most likely has an ecclesiastical origin (making its association with Twain all the more ironic). Russel Honore attributed it to his army chaplain, while Red Cross Chairwoman Bonnie McElveen-Hunter credited it to the prominent Presbyterian pastor turned “randy reverend,” Dr. It was also, conspicuously, cited by two celebrated faces of the Hurricane Katrina recovery. Sewell Perkins, Bob Proctor, Felicia Shaw, Dianne Wilson, David Wood, and Darlene Zschech. The corporate, pseudo-psychiatric, and evangelical “life coaches” the aphorism has been repeatedly attributed to include Don Boyer, Les Brown, Kyrbyjon Caldwell, Dave Martin, John C. Twain would’ve viewed this industry as representative, at best, of doltish naïveté and, more likely, as cynical charlatanism. It was invented and popularized by a cottage industry of self-help books and motivational speakers many decades after Twain’s death. The “two most important days” quotation clearly fails this test. As Louis Budd put is, Twain indulged a “lifelong suspicion that the mass of mankind is venal, doltish, feckless, and tyrannical, that the damn fools make up a majority anywhere.” The Occam’s Razor of Twain attribution is, as follows: If the aphorism in question indicates a sentimental, nostalgic, or otherwise optimistic attitude towards humanity, it probably didn’t come from Twain. Perhaps appropriately, in a year which has officially been deemed post-truth, the most frequently encountered example of Twain’s notorious wit is something he most certainly never said. It has been tweeted by over 900 separate accounts, reaching over 5.2 million users, in the past twelve days.* Antoine Fuqua made it the epitaph to his 2014 action film, The Equalizer, starring Denzel Washington, which grossed nearly $200 Million worldwide. ![]() In just the hour prior to this writing, the quote appeared in seven independent Facebook posts. This is currently the most viral piece of Twain apocrypha. The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why. The most common question addressed to the Center for Mark Twain Studies is some variety of “Did he really say that?” Whenever possible, we track down the original source, as well as attempt to trace how their words came to be imagined in Twain’s mouth. It has only increased with the popularization of digital media. The circulation of such apocryphal aphorisms was common enough in the 20th century. There is perhaps no greater testament to Twain’s lasting reputation than the habitual misattribution of miscellaneous wit and wisdom to his name.
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