Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.”
- Date
- 1894
- Local voice
- Epigraph / fictional source voice · Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar
Meaning of “Few things are harder to put up with…”
The epigram satirizes the irritation produced when another person’s good conduct silently exposes our own shortcomings, making moral example feel inconvenient rather than inspiring.
Where does it come from?
Pudd’nhead Wilson, Chapter XIX epigraph; one of the Calendar maxims before the chapter.
Why the local voice matters
Twain presents this wording as a chapter-epigraph Calendar maxim. The Calendar is a fictional framing device / source voice rather than uncomplicated autobiography by Twain.
