Mark Twain Political Quotes Trivia Quiz

Answer: then I repeat myself

Congress gets more of the same in these two gems. "Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can" and "It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress".

Answer: tax man

He brings religion into the mix. "We've got so much taxation. I don't know of a single foreign product that enters this country untaxed except the answer to prayer." Enter the cheats. "There isn't a rich man in your vast city who doesn't perjure himself every year before the tax board. They are all caked with perjury, many layers thick. Iron-clad, so to speak. If there is one that isn't, I desire to acquire him for my museum, and will pay Dinosaur rates."

Answer: the legislature is in session

In a double punch he continues with Legislatures: "I think I can say, and say with pride that we have some legislatures that bring higher prices than any in the world". and on individual legislators "...it's so hard to find men of a so high type of morals that they'll stay bought".

Answer: Judas Iscariot

Congressmen take another hit with the weather. "The lightning there is peculiar; it is so convincing, that when it strikes a thing it doesn't leave enough of that thing behind for you to tell whether -- Well, you'd think it was something valuable, and a Congressman had been there."

Answer: an entire banquet

What does he really think of politics? "I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's" and "The new political gospel: public office is private graft".

Answer: manhood

Here's one about intrusiveness in our daily lives. "I think it is not wise for an emperor, or a king, or a president, to come down into the boxing ring, so to speak, and lower the dignity of his office by meddling in the small affairs of private citizens."

Answer: do

He certainly doesn't think much about public service either. "The government of my country snubs honest simplicity, but fondles artistic villainy, and I think I might have developed into a very capable pickpocket if I had remained in the public service a year or two."

Answer: Senator

He then lumps them all together with this. "All Congresses and Parliaments have a kindly feeling for idiots, and a compassion for them, on account of personal experience and heredity."

Answer: public servants

With this in mind, he defines the opposite of a graft taker. "An honest man in politics shines more than he would elsewhere."

Answer: pumpkins

Power and politics don't mix to well. "To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government and the sure and gradual deterioration of the public morals." Local government don't fair to well either. "When politics enter into municipal government, nothing resulting therefrom in the way of crimes and infamies is then incredible.

It actually enables one to accept and believe the impossible..."