Hi sjmaxq!
Great quote! I love the way Twain exaggerates. He would have made a great uncle to listen to by the fire at night. Luckily we can all still read his entertaining stories and not really worry about the accuracy of the details; for many of them were in fact false by design. What a character!

I liked this quote about his visit to Pompeii:

But perhaps the most poetical thing Pompeii has yielded to modern research, was that grand figure of a Roman soldier, clad in complete armor; who, true to his duty, true to his proud name of a soldier of Rome, and full of the stern courage which had given to that name its glory, stood to his post by the city gate, erect and unflinching, till the hell that raged around him burned out the dauntless spirit it could not conquer.

We never read of Pompeii but we think of that soldier; we can not write of Pompeii without the natural impulse to grant to him the mention he so well deserves. Let us remember that he was a soldier -- not a policeman -- and so, praise him. Being a soldier, he staid, -- because the warrior instinct forbade him to fly. Had he been a policeman he would have staid, also -- because he would have been asleep.

No, nothing was sacred to Twain. Thank goodness.