From time to time, I open a newspaper. Things seem to be proceeding at a dizzying rate. We are dancing not on the edge of a volcano, but on the wooden seat of a latrine, and it seems to me more than a touch rotten. Soon society will go plummeting down and drown in nineteen centuries of shit. There’ll be quite a lot of shouting. (1850) Gustave Flaubert
About This Quote

Mark Twain said, "From time to time, I open a newspaper. Things seem to be proceeding at a dizzying rate. We are dancing not on the edge of a volcano, but on the wooden seat of a latrine, and it seems to me more than a touch rotten. Soon society will go plummeting down and drown in nineteen centuries of shit.

There'll be quite a lot of shouting." The quote is full of puns, including the word "society" being used in two different meanings. The first meaning refers to the people who comprise society—the living creatures ruled by the laws of nature. The second meaning refers to society's physical structure—a building made up of rooms linked together.

Both meanings are involved in this pun. First, Twain is saying that he thinks human society is becoming rotten; second , he thinks that our current societal structure (including humans) is built on rotten foundations (an old latrine). "Society" basically means the same thing in both senses, but both meanings can be combined with other words to make puns for this quote.

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