The correct reading is "All you need in this life is ignorance & confidence; then success is sure." The quotation is from a letter to Cordelia Welsh Foote of Cincinnati, written on 2 December 1887. Mrs. Foote was then performing as a reader of selections from Dickens, Thackeray, Hawthorne, Mark Twain, and others. In fact she clearly used the letter Clemens sent her as something to read on stage. On 26 May 1888 she thanked him for it: Dear Mr Clemens I want to thank you for answering my letter (you have probably forgotten it) so promptly, and splendidly--and to tell you that it has helped me much, the "Half hour with Mark Twain" is a decided hit--and when my audience are up to the point--and I recite "Jim Wolf and the Cats *you* are considered the King of comedy-- I thank you--I thank you--and so does Mother Fairbanks--always respectfully and gratefully Delia Foote Ridgeway ave--Avondale, Cin---- Clemens has written on the envelope, "Complimentary--from Delia Foote." It's a fair guess (but just a guess) that Mrs. Foote is related in some way to Mary E. Foote whom Clemens knew through Mrs. Fairbanks in Cleveland. The letter makes clear that he has known her since 1867 when she was "a singer of plaintive Scotch ballads that were full of heart-break and tears." The letter itself was published by Benjamin DeCasseres in *When Huck Finn Went Highbrow* (1934). Bob Hirst