“I Did Not Attend the Funeral, but I Sent a Nice Letter Saying I Approved of it.”

(This quote, like many witty quotes, is often wrongly ascribed to Mark Twain, though it was actually Hoar to whom it should be attributed, as the website “Quote Investigator” details. Twain’s place in our collective imagination continues to earn him posthumous accolades. His account of this would have certainly been humorous.)

Mark Twain
(Credit: brainpickings.org)