A worn leather dog lead hangs in a heart-shaped loop above a tennis ball on a wooden floor.

Original artwork, not a still

Mark Twain

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosper, he will not bite you......this is the principle difference between man and a dog.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The line contrasts a cared-for dog's expected loyalty with human ingratitude. Its sweeping comparison is rhetorical, rather than a guarantee that any rescued dog will never bite.

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