Some aphorisms from the diaries of Mark Twain on my 47th birthday

                                                       Mark Twain

' The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much : if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.
Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of ourselves and how  little.
Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.
There are several  good protections against temptations, but the surest  is cowardice.
Of all God's creatures, there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.

(um I've been cat sitting in Wood Green in North London.)