“Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary”
— Mark Twain
Simplified Meaning:
When we truly feel an emotion, we can't control it because it comes from deep inside us. Imagine you see a friend you haven't seen in years, and you start crying from happiness. You didn't plan to cry, it just happened because you were really happy. This shows that sincere emotions come out naturally without us deciding to show them. For instance, if you break a leg, you immediately feel pain—it's not something you choose to feel, it just happens. Similarly, if someone tells a funny joke, you laugh automatically if you find it genuinely funny. These reactions are like our honest emotions, happening without us thinking about them. If we try to fake an emotion, like pretending to be happy when we're not, it's usually not convincing because it didn’t come naturally. To live authentically, it's good to recognize and accept our true feelings, rather than trying to hide them or force ourselves to feel differently.