There is a popular statement on the Internet attributed to an American writer that the rich, in terms of their moral qualities and actions, deserve not beautiful clothes, but prison or even worse. We decided to check if he said anything like that.

The phrase about expensive ties and ropes indicating the authorship of Mark Twain can be found on websites with selections quotes And aphorisms, on entertaining And educational portals and services questions and answers. Social network users share it (“VKontakte", X, Telegram, Facebook*) and blog platforms (“Zen", "Peekaboo", LiveJournal). Sometimes to the phrase is added preamble: “This is how it is in the USA.” And some users retell and the circumstances in which Mark Twain allegedly uttered these words - he was talking to a dishonest speculator who had deceived the Indians and got rich by buying their land.

Along with Albert Einstein, Mark Twain is one of those outstanding people whose vivid aphoristic quotes can often be found on the Internet, and he has nothing to do with some of them. "Verified" already sorted it out There are many statements that are groundlessly attributed to this American writer.

It is not difficult to check whether Mark Twain was the author of a particular phrase. In the more than hundred years since his death, the works of the American writer have been carefully studied and digitized. The largest collections of his works - archive Mark Twain Projects Online, compiled with support from the University of California, Berkeley, base Twain Quotes, which includes texts written by Mark Twain or dedicated to him, and electronic archive, compiled by the University of Virginia Library. Using the keywords of the quote being analyzed in these databases, you can check whether anything similar occurs in the writer’s literary heritage.

However, there were some difficulties with the statement about expensive ties and ropes: apparently, it gained popularity only in Russian. “Verified” did not find this quote in any of the possible translations into English in the English-speaking segment of the Internet - either with or without an indication of the authorship of Mark Twain. The writer lived all his life in the USA and wrote in English, so there is no doubt that the phrase being analyzed has something to do with him. Nevertheless, using the keywords “tie” and “rope” (in different translations of these words into English), “Checked” still tried to find something similar to this quote in the databases mentioned above, but without success.

Magazine "Ogonyok", No. 44, 1951. Screenshot "Verified"

The earliest case found by “Verified” of attributing this statement to Mark Twain is a publication in the 44th issue of the magazine “Ogonyok” from 1951. It retells the writer’s dialogue with a cunning speculator who robbed the Indians and got rich from it (as in some modern viral publications). Later this story appeared in other Soviet periodicals, for example in one of numbers Soviet magazine "Theater Life", published in 1969. However, Mark Twain’s interlocutor there is no longer a speculator, but a theater producer, which is more consistent with the theme of the publication. Be that as it may, in both cases the story, apparently, did not claim to be reliable - it was posted in the anecdote section. Given the supposed original source, it is not surprising that the quote attributed to the American writer was circulated only in Russian.

Thus, Verified was unable to find any credible evidence that Mark Twain said or wrote the phrase about ties and ropes. Apparently, the story of how the writer allegedly responded wittily to a boastful interlocutor was originally published in the anecdote section of one of the Soviet periodicals. Subsequently, the context was lost, and the phrase (as well as the supposed circumstances under which the writer uttered it) began to be disseminated as a real story.

Cover photo: Ray Jerome Baker, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

*Russian authorities consider the company Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, to be an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.