The statement appears on page 965 of William Lyon Phelps's _Autobiography With Letters_. The statement does not appear in quotation marks, nor does Phelps cite it from a letter. Phelps writes: Mark Twain said life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty, and gradually approach eighteen. This would mean we should gradually lose our intelligence, our experience, our ideas, our work, our personality, even our manhood. We should exchange profound happiness for animal spirits (p. 965). Phelps knew Mark Twain and appears to be recalling the statement from memory. Barb