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About this quote

What does it mean?
Twain finds irony in libraries banning his book while leaving the Bible available to youth.
In plain terms
He is amused that his book is banned but the Bible is not.
What can you take from it?
Irony exists in what gets censored versus what is left open.

Where it applies

  • library policy
  • school rules
  • community debates

Putting it to work

  • review censorship
  • compare standards
  • note inconsistencies

Questions to consider

  • What makes a book acceptable?
  • Who decides what to read?

Another view

Some argue the Bible has historical value that other texts may lack.

More from Mark Twain

  1. 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 inferio…

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  2. Citizenship? We have none! In place of it we teach patriotism which Samuel Johnson said a hundred and forty or a hundred and fifty years ago was the last refug…

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  3. It may be called the Master Passion, the hunger for self-approval.

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