Painterly round vanity mirror showing a moonlike surface beside a glowing wall light.

Original artwork, not a still

Notebook • 1935

Mark Twain

Everyone is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anyone.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker compares every person to the moon, which always keeps one hidden side turned away. Everyone, the line suggests, keeps some part of themselves private, whether shameful, vulnerable or simply unshared, and even those closest to us see only the face we choose to present.

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