Twain catches something we rarely admit: doing right isn't noble *because* everyone will applaud—it's noble partly *because* they won't. The real surprise in his observation isn't that virtue has power, but that we've organized our expectations so backward that basic decency shocks us. When a politician admits a mistake or a corporation actually refunds money without being sued, we gasp as though witnessing a comet. Twain's dry wit suggests that the astonishment itself reveals how badly we've let standards slip.