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“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” Mark Twa

by wazoox 3y ago

“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” Mark Twain

fortran77 3y ago
Twain never said that. There's a similar quote in his _Autobiography_ but it doesn't really say the same thing. > We are so high that we do not have to explain anything to anybody, either in this world or in the next. Annihilation has no terrors for me, because I have already tried it before I was born–a hundred million years–and I have suffered more in an hour, in this life, than I remember to have suffered in the whole hundred million years put together. Look at his Autobiography for more context.
- wslh 3y ago
  This is a good Internet archeology challenge. I quickly tried on Google [books] and ChatGPT. ChatGPT says that oldest misattribution it finds is from Richard Dawkins' book "The God Delusion" [1]. I retried on Google Books using quotes around a sentence and it finds [2] and [3]. I don't have access to these so I cannot check, if some can we could clarify part of the mistery. Project Gutenberg on Mark Twain [4]? DDG find the oldest attributed to Mark Twain in 2004 [5]. Trying [1] https://www.docdroid.net/XGv3aLm/the-god-delusion-pdf https://www.docdroid.net/XGv3aLm/the-god-delusion-pdf [2] https://www.google.com.ar/books/edition/Mark_Twain_on_Religion/oIqMKvyxsGcC?hl=en https://www.google.com.ar/books/edition/Mark_Twain_on_Religi... (Mark Twain 1906/2007 based on page results) [3] https://www.google.com.ar/books/edition/The_Five_Boons_of_Life/ARHGDAEACAAJ?hl=en https://www.google.com.ar/books/edition/The_Five_Boons_of_Li... (1902) (checked in Kindle search and it is not there, Google failed!). [4] https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/53 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/53 trying site:gutenberg.org "I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born" doesn't give any result. [5] https://sorcerers.net/community/threads/high-level-abilities.23918/ https://sorcerers.net/community/threads/high-level-abilities...
- Ntrails 3y ago
  I am not convinced that is a significantly different meaning? The true quote certainly has more depth and nuance around the hardship of living. But GP feels like a tolerable para-phrase to me
throwaway2562 3y ago
As Nagel points out, this is Lucretius’s argument. He’s not buying it because death is loss for the subject of the potential good experiences they would have had in life, which must postdate being born. If I understand him correctly, that is. I’m not buying that argument either, because the subject is not able to experience loss - only anticipation of loss - whereas non-dead friends and family get the real thing. Death is only bad for those who love or need us. PS Happy New Year

by wazoox 3y ago

“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” Mark Twain

fortran77 3y ago

Twain never said that. There's a similar quote in his _Autobiography_ but it doesn't really say the same thing. > We are so high that we do not have to explain anything to anybody, either in this world or in the next. Annihilation has no terrors for me, because I have already tried it before I was born–a hundred million years–and I have suffered more in an hour, in this life, than I remember to have suffered in the whole hundred million years put together. Look at his Autobiography for more context.

wslh 3y ago
This is a good Internet archeology challenge. I quickly tried on Google [books] and ChatGPT. ChatGPT says that oldest misattribution it finds is from Richard Dawkins' book "The God Delusion" [1]. I retried on Google Books using quotes around a sentence and it finds [2] and [3]. I don't have access to these so I cannot check, if some can we could clarify part of the mistery. Project Gutenberg on Mark Twain [4]? DDG find the oldest attributed to Mark Twain in 2004 [5]. Trying [1] https://www.docdroid.net/XGv3aLm/the-god-delusion-pdf https://www.docdroid.net/XGv3aLm/the-god-delusion-pdf [2] https://www.google.com.ar/books/edition/Mark_Twain_on_Religion/oIqMKvyxsGcC?hl=en https://www.google.com.ar/books/edition/Mark_Twain_on_Religi... (Mark Twain 1906/2007 based on page results) [3] https://www.google.com.ar/books/edition/The_Five_Boons_of_Life/ARHGDAEACAAJ?hl=en https://www.google.com.ar/books/edition/The_Five_Boons_of_Li... (1902) (checked in Kindle search and it is not there, Google failed!). [4] https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/53 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/53 trying site:gutenberg.org "I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born" doesn't give any result. [5] https://sorcerers.net/community/threads/high-level-abilities.23918/ https://sorcerers.net/community/threads/high-level-abilities...
Ntrails 3y ago
I am not convinced that is a significantly different meaning? The true quote certainly has more depth and nuance around the hardship of living. But GP feels like a tolerable para-phrase to me

throwaway2562 3y ago

As Nagel points out, this is Lucretius’s argument. He’s not buying it because death is loss for the subject of the potential good experiences they would have had in life, which must postdate being born. If I understand him correctly, that is. I’m not buying that argument either, because the subject is not able to experience loss - only anticipation of loss - whereas non-dead friends and family get the real thing. Death is only bad for those who love or need us. PS Happy New Year