Twain was speaking against the government's attempt to regulate Osteopahy...the osteopaths/chiropractors had hoped he was a believer, but it turned out he thought bone-adjustment was a sham, yet defending people being free to choose for themselves.
Now what I contend is that my body is my own, at least I have always so regarded it. If I do harm through my experimenting with it, it is I who suffer, not the state.
— Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), address to the New York General Assembly (1901)
Words of the Sentient 
whobeen
April 5, 2012 at 12:31
Ref:”Now what I contend is that my body is my own, at least I have always so regarded it. If I do harm through my experimenting with it, it is I who suffer, not the state.”
Interesting quote…but couldn’t it favor the drug addict’s quest for his freedom of choice? I presume Clemens wanted the state (aka, the government) to stay out of the health provider business but contend that the drug addict desires the same.
Norm
kazvorpal
April 5, 2012 at 17:38
Of course, and Samuel Clemens was against drug prohibion.
whobeen
April 6, 2012 at 05:53
You obviously have a better handle on Sam than I…
Aside from Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn the only other read from his pen that I can remember was the first paragraph of his autobiography…somehow I never finished the book but that first paragraph was memorable. He wrote of his travel to the his birthplace as if he were cognizant of the fact when in reality he was still in his embyonic stage in his mother’s womb.