It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone or any other important thing—and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others. He added his little mite — that is all he did. These object lessons should teach us that ninety-nine parts of all things that proceed from the intellect are plagiarisms, pure and simple; and the lesson ought to make us modest. But nothing can do that.

But I have thought some more since then and I have read carefully the treaty of Paris [which ended the Spanish-American War] and I have seen that we do not intend to free but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. There were three versions found in his manuscripts made between 1897 and 1905: the Hannibal Eseldorf and Print Shop versions. He did state that "the goodness the justice and the mercy of God are manifested in His works" but also that "the universe is governed by strict and immutable laws" which determine "small matters" such as who dies in a pestilence.

Twain chose to pay all his pre-bankruptcy creditors in full though he had no responsibility to do this under the law. He also worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to his older brother Orion's newspaper. He achieved great success as a writer and public speaker.