Whenever You Find Yourself On The

Written in Twain's private notebook on October 13, 1904, this entry was first published posthumously in Mark Twain's Notebook (1935), edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. The most accurate wording includes "reform (or pause and reflect)" — the popular version circulating online drops "reform" entirely. Scholar Barbara Schmidt of the Mark Twain House has confirmed the notebook attribution as authentic, making this one of the better-verified entries from Twain's private writings.