Authors:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Mark Twain Quotes - Page 35

All Quotes 4th Of July Accomplishment Achievement Addiction Adventure Adversity Age Aging Alcohol Ambition Anxiety Appearance Appreciation Arguing Army Arrogance Art Atheism Atheist Attitude Authority Balance Beauty Beer Being Alone Belief Bible Bitterness Blame Bliss Bravery Business Censorship Challenges Change Character Charity Chastity Children Christianity Church Coffee College Comedy Communication Community Compassion Confidence Conflict Conscience Conservatism Constitution Cooking Country Courage Crime Criticism Dance Dancing Darkness Death Deception Defeat Democracy Design Desire Determination Devil Disappointment Diversity Divorce Doubt Drinking Duty Dying Earth Education Effort Encouragement Energy Enthusiasm Envy Epic Ethics Evidence Evil Exercise Experience Failing Failure Family Fashion Fear Feelings Fighting Finding Yourself Fitness Flattery Focus Food Forgiveness Free Speech Freedom Friends Friendship Fun Funeral Funny Future Genius Getting Older Giving Giving Up God Gold Good Times Gossip Grace Graduation Gratitude Greatness Greed Grief Grieving Growing Up Growth Happiness Happy Hard Times Hard Work Hate Healing Health Heart Heaven Hell Hilarious Hills Hinduism History Holiday Home Honesty Honor House Human Nature Humanity Humility Hunger Hunting Hurt Hypocrisy Ignorance Imagination Independence Individuality Innovation Insanity Inspiration Inspirational Inspiring Integrity Intelligence Journey Joy Judgement Judging Judgment Justice Kindness Knowledge Labor Language Laughter Law Of Attraction Leadership Learning Liars Liberty Life Life And Death Literature Loneliness Losing Loss Love Loyalty Luck Lying Madness Manners Marriage Math Memorial Day Memories Military Moderation Modesty Mom Monarchy Money Moon Morality Morning Motivation Motivational Mountain Music Nature New Year Office Opportunity Optimism Pain Parenting Passion Past Patriotism Peace Perception Perfection Perseverance Personality Philosophy Planning Pleasure Politics Positive Positive Thinking Positivity Poverty Power Praise Prayer Preaching Prejudice Pride Privacy Profanity Progress Prophecy Prosperity Purpose Quality Rain Reading Reading Books Reality Recovery Regret Religion Reputation Respect Responsibility Revolution Risk Running Sad Sadness Sailing Salvation Sanity Sarcasm Satan School Science Self Esteem Seven Shame Silence Simplicity Sin Skins Sleep Smoking Society Solitude Son Sorrow Soul Sports Spring Strength Struggle Study Stupidity Style Success Suffering Summer Sunday Sunshine Swimming Talent Taxes Teaching Temperance Temptation Time Today Trade Tradition Tragedy Training Travel Trust Truth Twins Undertaker Vacation Values Violence Virtue Vision Vocation Voting Waiting War Water Wealth Whiskey Wife Wine Winning Winter Wisdom Wit Work Worry Worship Writing Youth

Books are the liberated spirits of men.

Books are the liberated spirits of men.

Book, Men, Spirit

Mark Twain, Paul Fatout (1997). “Mark Twain Speaks for Himself”, p.146, Purdue University Press

It is sound judgment to put on a bold face and play your hand for a hundred times what it is worth; forty-nine times out of fifty nobody dares to call it, and you roll in the chips.

Hands, Play, Sound

Mark Twain (1961). “Twain: Wit and Wisecracks”

We despise all reverences and all objects of reverence which are outside the pale of our list of sacred things. And yet, with strange inconsistency, we are shocked when other people despise and defile the things which are holy to us.

People, Religion, Sacred Things

Mark Twain (2015). “Following the Equator: "A Journey Around the World"”, p.544, eKitap Projesi

I once sent a dozen of my friends a telegram saying 'flee at once - all is discovered.' They all left town immediately.

Hilarious, Inspiration, Ironic

No God and no religion can survive ridicule. No political church, no nobility, no royalty or other fraud, can face ridicule in a fair field, and live.

God, Political, Religion

If man had created man, he would be ashamed of his performance.

Nature, Men, Humanity

Mark Twain (2015). “Bite-Size Twain: Wit and Wisdom from the Literary Legend”, p.21, St. Martin's Press

The most permanent lessons in morals are those which come, not of book teaching, but of experience.

Book, Teaching, Lessons

Mark Twain (2016). “The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain”, p.162, Chartwell

Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.

Inspirational, Funny, Sarcastic

Pudd'nhead Wilson ch. 15, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar" (1894)

We had a sunset of a very fine sort. The vast plain of the sea was marked off in bands of sharply-contrasted colors: great stretches of dark blue, others of purple, others of polished bronze; the billowy mountains showed all sorts of dainty browns and greens, blues and purples and blacks, and the rounded velvety backs of certain of them made one want to stroke them, as one would the sleek back of a cat.

Stars, Sunset, Cat

Mark Twain (2015). “Following the Equator: "A Journey Around the World"”, p.55, eKitap Projesi

Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.

Change, Loyalty, Courage

Speech, Hartford, Conn., 1884

Suppose . . . burglars had made entry into this . . . [library]. Picture them seated here on this floor, pouring the light of their dark-lanterns over some books they found, and thus absorbing moral truths and getting moral uplift. The whole course of their lives would have been changed. As it was, they kept straight on in their immoral way and were sent to jail. For all I know, they may next be sent to Congress.

Life, Uplifting, Book

We could use up two Eternities in learning all that is to be learned about our own world and the thousands of nations that have arisen and flourished and vanished from it. Mathematics alone would occupy me eight million years.

Math, Science, Eight

Mark Twain (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated)”, p.8549, Delphi Classics

It is not worth while to strain one's self to tell the truth to people who habitually discount everything you tell them, whether it is true or isn't.

Truth, Self, People

Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.271, Courier Corporation

None but the dead have free speech.

Speech, Free Speech

Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.133, Courier Corporation

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.

Inspirational, Funny, Leadership

Attributed in Reader's Digest, Apr. 1934. A similar remark, attributed to an anonymous octogenarian, appears in the Washington Post, 11 Sept. 1910. See Jefferson 42

When ill luck begins, it does not come in sprinkles, but in showers.

Luck, Doe, Sprinkles

Mark Twain, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Mark Twain: All 13 Novels, Short Stories, Poetry and Essays”, p.2059, GENERAL PRESS

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing after all. The minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations, and resentments flit away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.

Humor, Yield, Irritation

Mark Twain (1994). “Tales, Speeches, Essays, and Sketches”, p.376, Penguin

I have too much respect for the truth to drag it out on every trifling occasion.

Too Much, Drag, Trifling

In my experience, previously counted chickens never do hatch.

Chickens

Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain’s Letters & Speeches (Annotated Edition)”, p.362, Jazzybee Verlag

The wise thing is for us diligently to train ourselves to lie thoughtfully, judiciously; to lie with a good object, and not an evil one; to lie for others' advantage, and not our own; to lie healingly, charitably, humanely, not cruelly, hurtfully, maliciously; to lie gracefully and graciously, not awkwardly and clumsily; to lie firmly, frankly, squarely, with head erect, not haltingly, tortuously, with pusillanimous mien, as being ashamed of our high calling.

Wise, Lying, Evil

Mark Twain, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Mark Twain: All 13 Novels, Short Stories, Poetry and Essays”, p.2133, GENERAL PRESS

My idea of our civilization is that it is a shoddy, poor thing and full of cruelties, vanities, arrogances, meannesses and hypocrisies.

Vanity, Civilization, Ideas

Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.47, Courier Corporation

It is not best that we should all think alike; it is a difference of opinion that makes horse races.

Education, Wisdom, Horse

Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) ch. 19

Ideally a book would have no order to it, and the reader would have to discover his own.

Book, Writing, Order

A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.

Life, Education, Truth

Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.485, Courier Corporation

I never could keep a promise. I do not blame myself for this weakness, because the fault must lie in my physical organization. It is likely that such a very liberal amount of space was given to the organ which enables me to make promises that the organ which should enable me to keep them was crowded out. But I grieve not. I like no half-way things. I had rather have one faculty nobly developed than two faculties of mere ordinary capacity.

Lying, Grieving, Space

Mark Twain (1871). “The Innocents Abroad, Or, The New Pilgrims' Progress: Being Some Account of the Steamship Quaker City's Pleasure Excursion to Europe and the Holy Land : with Descriptions of Countries, Nations, Incidents and Adventures, as They Appeared to the Author”, p.239

You May Also Like: