Smoking and particuarly cigar smoking are always in the news as far as their health consequences versus the rights of people to choose what they do to their own bodies.
Mark Twain was famous for his belief in individual rights and during his 70th Birthday celebration, he gave a famous speech which included some great discussion about the value of a good cigar.
I have made it a rule never to smoke more than one cigar at a time. I have no other restriction as regards smoking. I do not know just when I began to smoke, I only know that it was in my father’s lifetime, and that I was discreet. He passed from this life early in 1847, when I was a shade past eleven; ever since then I have smoked publicly. As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain when awake. It is a good rule. I mean, for me; but some of you know quite well that it wouldn’t answer for everybody that’s trying to get to be seventy.
Moderation was never Twain's strong point either.
I smoke in bed until I have to go to sleep; I wake up in the night, sometimes once, sometimes twice, sometimes three times, and I never waste any of these opportunities to smoke. This habit is so old and dear and precious to me that I would feel as you, sir, would feel if you should lose the only moral you’ve got-meaning the chairman-if you’ve got one: I am making no charges. I will grant, here, that I have stopped smoking now and then, for a few months at a time, but it was not on principle, it was only to show off; it was to pulverize those critics who said I was a slave to my habits and couldn’t break my bonds.
It would be interesting to hear Twain's opinions on subjects such as Marijana legalization and Public Smoking Bans if he were still alive today.
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