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Mark Twain Quotes

Author of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer.

Writer | American

Born: November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri, U.S.

Died: April 21, 1910 in Redding, Connecticut, U.S.

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

Mark Twain
age

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.

Mark Twain
age

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.

Mark Twain
age

Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.

Mark Twain

When angry, count to four when very angry, swear.

Mark Twain

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.

Mark Twain

If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.

Mark Twain

We have the best government that money can buy.

Mark Twain

Honesty is the best policy - when there is money in it.

Mark Twain

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

Mark Twain

Prosperity is the best protector of principle.

Mark Twain

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

Mark Twain

It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.

Mark Twain

Prophesy is a good line of business, but it is full of risks.

Mark Twain

A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.

Mark Twain

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.

Mark Twain

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

Mark Twain

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

Mark Twain

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.

Mark Twain

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

Mark Twain

Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.

Mark Twain

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.

Mark Twain

Don't let schooling interfere with your education.

Mark Twain

I've never let my school interfere with my education.

Mark Twain

Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.

Mark Twain

Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.

Mark Twain

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

Mark Twain

I never let schooling interfere with my education.

Mark Twain

Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run.

Mark Twain

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

Mark Twain

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.

Mark Twain

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

Mark Twain

Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.

Mark Twain

Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.

Mark Twain

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

Mark Twain

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

Mark Twain

Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.

Mark Twain

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

Mark Twain

All generalizations are false, including this one.

Mark Twain

By trying we can easily endure adversity. Another man's, I mean.

Mark Twain

Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.

Mark Twain
god

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.

Mark Twain
god

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

Mark Twain
god

God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.

Mark Twain
god

Man was made at the end of the week's work when God was tired.

Mark Twain
god

Man - a creature made at the end of the week's work when God was tired.

Mark Twain
god

I can live for two months on a good compliment.

Mark Twain

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.

Mark Twain

It's good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling.

Mark Twain

Golf is a good walk spoiled.

Mark Twain

Thunder is good, thunder is impressive but it is lightning that does the work.

Mark Twain

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

Mark Twain

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.

Mark Twain

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.

Mark Twain

It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.

Mark Twain

There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.

Mark Twain

To be good is noble but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.

Mark Twain

Prophesy is a good line of business, but it is full of risks.

Mark Twain

What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before.

Mark Twain

We have the best government that money can buy.

Mark Twain

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

Mark Twain

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.

Mark Twain

Laws control the lesser man... Right conduct controls the greater one.

Mark Twain

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

Mark Twain

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

Mark Twain

My books are like water those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.

Mark Twain

There are people who can do all fine and heroic things but one - keep from telling their happiness to the unhappy.

Mark Twain

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.

Mark Twain

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not.

Mark Twain

The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

Mark Twain

Lord save us all from a hope tree that has lost the faculty of putting out blossoms.

Mark Twain

Humor is mankind's greatest blessing.

Mark Twain

Everything human is pathetic. The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven.

Mark Twain

The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow there is no humor in Heaven.

Mark Twain

Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever.

Mark Twain

You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

Mark Twain

I must have a prodigious quantity of mind it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up.

Mark Twain

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

Mark Twain

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.

Mark Twain

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.

Mark Twain

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

Mark Twain

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.

Mark Twain

To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.

Mark Twain

What a wee little part of a person's life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself.

Mark Twain

Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.

Mark Twain

When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain.

Mark Twain

Wit is the sudden marriage of ideas which before their union were not perceived to have any relation.

Mark Twain

The Christian's Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same, but the medical practice changes.

Mark Twain

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

Mark Twain
mom

The lack of money is the root of all evil.

Mark Twain

Honesty is the best policy - when there is money in it.

Mark Twain

We have the best government that money can buy.

Mark Twain

If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.

Mark Twain

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

Mark Twain

Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.

Mark Twain

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

Mark Twain

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress but I repeat myself.

Mark Twain

Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.

Mark Twain

When people do not respect us we are sharply offended yet in his private heart no man much respects himself.

Mark Twain

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

Mark Twain

The finest clothing made is a person's own skin, but, of course, society demands something more than this.

Mark Twain

It's good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling.

Mark Twain

Golf is a good walk spoiled.

Mark Twain

All you need is ignorance and confidence and the success is sure.

Mark Twain

To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.

Mark Twain

A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.

Mark Twain

Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.

Mark Twain

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

Mark Twain

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

Mark Twain

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

Mark Twain

Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

Mark Twain

A round man cannot be expected to fit in a square hole right away. He must have time to modify his shape.

Mark Twain

I have made it a rule never to smoke more that one cigar at a time.

Mark Twain

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

Mark Twain

It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.

Mark Twain

Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.

Mark Twain

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities Truth isn't.

Mark Twain

When in doubt tell the truth.

Mark Twain

Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.

Mark Twain

Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain't so.

Mark Twain

Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't.

Mark Twain

Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.

Mark Twain

Man was made at the end of the week's work when God was tired.

Mark Twain

Thunder is good, thunder is impressive but it is lightning that does the work.

Mark Twain

Man - a creature made at the end of the week's work when God was tired.

Mark Twain

Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

Mark Twain

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

Mark Twain

Sometimes too much to drink is barely enough.

Mark Twain

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