Laughter and Unexpected Turns with Mark Twain

"The human race has only one really effective weapon, and that is laughter." This is one of my favorite quotes by Mark Twain, considered to be the “greatest humorist the United States has produced.” He knew that laughter is good medicine when facing adversity or when life takes an unexpected turn.

Quite by accident this summer, I took an unexpected turn to Mark Twain’s boyhood home. My husband and I were on a road trip driving through Missouri, when he said, “Hey, we are near Hannibal, let’s stop! Do you know what’s significant about Hannibal?”

“Uh, do you mean, Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs?”

“No, it’s the boyhood home of Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain,” he said as he took the exit to Hannibal. “You’re a writer, you need to see this!”

We sang “Ol’ Man River” as we crossed the Mississippi and pulled into the quaint little town of Hannibal, Missouri. We spent a happy afternoon touring Twain’s childhood home. Born Samuel Clemens in 1835 just two weeks after the perihelion of Halley’s Comet, he liked to joke that he “came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835.”

Inspired by his town and life along the banks of the Mississippi, Twain wrote the classics, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He wrote about what he knew: steam boats, river transients, life in the 1800s along the Mississippi, coming of age, friendship, and slavery. He chose the pen name “Mark Twain” because it was an old riverboat term. When the leadman on the steamboat shouted “mark twain,” he was signaling that the water was a safe depth for the boat to pass. I love that he chose that as a pen name, because his life was anything but smooth sailing; it was messy. He had challenges and heartaches, but he is remembered and revered for his wit and words.

After the death of his father, Twain worked as a printer’s apprentice to help provide for his family. Later he became a typesetter. When his brother ran a local newspaper, he provided articles. Twain was a river boat pilot. He tried his hand unsuccessfully at mining. He was an inventor with three patents to his name. In the midst of all of this living, he stumbled upon his destiny and became an author and journalist. Though his books and articles were successful, he made bad investments and went bankrupt. Near the end of his life, he made a living public speaking so he could pay off his debts.

As I exited the Mark Twain house and museum, I was struck by his unconventional career path and his resilience in the face of adversity. A successful life isn’t always a journey down a straight path. There are unexpected turns, but if you are resilient, that path might lead you to opportunities you never could have imagined.

I read his many quotes out loud to my husband as we drove away from Hannibal. My husband laughed the loudest at “A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.” Twain would have cast no shade at cat ladies. Apparently, he had 19 cats, and when he traveled, he would “rent” cats. So, if laughter doesn’t heal your soul, try cats! No wonder he had so many cat quotes like, “If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.”

At the end of his unpredictable life, Mark Twain said, “It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‘Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.” That is exactly what happened. The day after Halley’s Comet appeared again in 1910,  Mark Twain, humorist and “father of American literature,” died of a heart attack.

If you need a good laugh today, look up Twain’s quotes, you’ll be glad you did. I’ll leave you with one more. “The proverb says ‘born lucky, always lucky.’ And I am very superstitious. As a small boy, I was notoriously lucky. It was usual for one or two of our lads to get drowned in the Mississippi every year, but I was pulled out in a 2/3 drowned condition nine times before I learned to swim, and was considered to be a cat in disguise.”

Published in The Facts Brazos Living on Sept 12, 2026