As I read Advice to Youth, by Mark Twain, I could not help but chuckle. Twain has a way with sarcasm and it is definitely noted in this composition. He was asked to come up with some advice for the youth. It was intended to be educational and contain some words of wisdom that could be applied in life. Twain’s first piece of advice was to always obey your parents, when they are present. He includes the “when they are present” to hint to the youth that when your parents are not present you are able to act as you wish and make their own mistakes. His thinking is that if you disobey them, they will punish you, and then at the end of your punishment you will just have to do what they said anyways. I have to agree with him when he says it’s easier to just listen to your parents the first time because that’s the way I was raised. If I chose not to listen to my parents I would be grounded until I decided I wanted to listen. His next piece of advice is to be respectful to your superiors,strangers and sometimes others. He includes…show more content… He starts by telling them to be careful when they lie. He warns them that once they are caught telling a lie, they will no longer be seen in good light. Twain refers to lying as an art that one must practice in order to perfect. Not once in this piece of advice does he ever tell the youth to not lie. He mentions that others will tell them not to lie, he however just tells them to not get caught. I agree with him when he says that once you are caught lying people probably will not trust you again. I also agree that lying is acceptable once in a while. For example, if someone comes running up to you very excited about their new haircut and they ask you what you think, you should tell them that you like it, even if it’s not true. In this instance, it would hurt the person’s feelings if you told the truth, therefore, it would be better to spare their feelings and tell a little white