Never the Twain shall meet...

Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in

which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured

This quote pops up frequently on Facebook and on websites devoted to inspirational quotes. The lesson is that we are more harmed by holding on to anger than the person at whom you are angry. Holding on to irrational anger is unhealthy, but there are times when we must be angry; at injustice, for instance.

This quote is often attributed to Mark Twain but there is no evidence that he ever said it. If he had there would be...some evidence. There seems to be more evidence that Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger) said something along those lines.

Google is not always reliable in finding the source of a quote--even though the above quote is attributed to Twain all over the Internet. But to me it just did not seem like something Twain would say. I've read a number of his works and have never seen the quote. I searched books.google.com for the quote. Nada.

So, not finding the quote using various Twain sources, I turned to a Twain expert. I went to website that is devoted to the works of Mark Twain and wrote to Barbara Schmidt at twainquotes and this is her reply to me:

Julie,

The quote "Anger is an acid..." is not an authentic Mark Twain quote.
One of the earliest appearances I found for it doing a quick search on
google books was a 1961 publication called A. A. GRAPEVINE (from
Anonymous Alcoholics).

Barbara Schmidt


So there ya have it--another quote quashed.


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