Hi Liz, The "billions" make sense to me, to be honest. Even before the earth, we still didn't exist. It sounds like poetic liberty for "a mind blowing amount of time".
Cheers Telmo. On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 4:23 AM, LizR <lizj...@gmail.com> wrote: > I was just a bit surprised at his use of "billions" rather than "millions" > which in context seems rather extravagant. Actually google indicates that I > am not alone in wondering this. > > http://www.telecomtally.com/blog/2006/12/did_mark_twain_1.html > > Wikiquote <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Twain>also agrees with me :-) > > I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years > before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from > it. > > - Quoted in Dawkins, > Richard<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins>(2006). "A Much Needed > Gap?". *The > God Delusion*. Bantam Press. p. 354. ISBN > 0-618-68000-4<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0618680004> > ., but no source is given. *Note that during Twain's life the Age of > the Earth <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_Earth> was thought to be > measured in tens of millions not billions of years.* > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
