Biographies are but clothes and buttons of the man - the biography of the man himself cannot be written.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Biographies often focus on superficial details rather than the true essence of a person.
- In plain terms
- Biographies show surface details, not the real person.
- What can you take from it?
- External details cannot fully capture a person's true nature.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How well do biographies reflect real people?
- What defines a person's true story?
Another view
It dismisses the value of documented history in understanding a person.
More from Mark Twain
A God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy…
Permalink to quote #111 Of all the creatures that were made he [man] is the most detestable. Of the entire brood he is the only one - the solitary one - that possesses malice. That is…
Permalink to quote #113 Only laughter can blow [a colossal humbug] to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
Permalink to quote #110
Related quotes
Over time, Hofstadter came to identify himself primarily as Jewish.
Richard HofstadterRichard Hofstadter quote #16 Murray Gell-Mann angered [Feynman's] family at a memorial service by asserting 'He surrounded himself with a cloud of myth, and he spent a great deal of time a…
Richard FeynmanRichard Feynman quote #98 Biographies are but clothes and buttons of the man - the biography of the man himself cannot be written.
Samuel Langhorne ClemensSamuel Langhorne Clemens quote #112