Mark Twain- "The Voice of Reason"

Almost all of us (in the U.S.) know who Mark Twain was.  His real name was Samuel Clemens and he was from Hannibal Missouri.  He wrote many books under the famous pen name of Mark Twain and we read several of these in our childhood.  I will never be able to forget Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer... and Jim the faithful slave.  I really enjoyed the books and even now I watch the movie renditions from time to time.  I still enjoy them as much as I did in my youth.
But do we really know the man who wrote these wonderful stories?  I don't think that very many of us do.  I am going to make this short and sweet by listing a couple of facts and several of his famous quotations.  You can do research (Using Google will give much more about "Good Old Sam.") and check my facts and quotes for authenticity.  Read, research, and see if you really knew him.  Keep in mind that one of his nicknames was "The Voice of Reason"  Here goes... and I promise you that you will either love this or hate it.  I don't think many will straddle the fence on this one.

Samuel Clemens moved to Virginia City, Nevada in order to elude the draft during the War of Northern Aggression.  If you remember your history you will remember that Missouri saw a lot of action during the war and much of it was internal.  Missourians were split down the middle as to their loyalties and beliefs and this cause much violence during the war.  I guess Sam felt that he would just let the others settle the issue.

Here are a few of his more famous quotes.  Research will yield many more for he was a prolific speaker and writer.  Keep in mind that he was a Presbyterian.

"Faith is believing something you know ain't true." 
                 

"'In God We Trust.' I don't believe it would sound any better if it were true." 
                 

"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do
 understand."    
              

"Religion consists in a set of things which the average man thinks he believes and wishes he was certain of."    
              

"There is no other life; life itself is only a vision and a dream for nothing exists but space and you. If there was an all-powerful God, he would have made all good, and no bad." Mark Twain in Eruption    
      

"Our Bible reveals to us the character of our god with minute and remorseless exactness... It is perhaps the most damnatory biography that exists in print anywhere. It makes Nero an angel of light and leading by contrast" Reflections on Religion, 1906 
 

"[The Bible is] a mass of fables and traditions, mere mythology." Mark Twain and the Bible       

"Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea." Letters from the Earth    
      

"If there is a God, he is a malign thug."    
              

Mr. Clemens was once asked whether he feared death. He said that he did not, in view of the fact that he had been dead for billions and billions of years before he was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.

    
"[The Bible] has noble poetry in it... and some good morals and a wealth of obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies."

    
"In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing." Autobiography of Mark Twain by Samuel Clemens