Mark Twain Quotes
In honor of a visit to Mark Twain’s Cabin and his short but significant stay in the Sierras, here are a few quotes:
Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
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.
Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.
You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
The lack of money is the root of all evil.
Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.
Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.
Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.
A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.
The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
All generalizations are false, including this one.
The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow; there is no humor in Heaven.
My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.
Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.
There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.
Action speaks louder than words, but not nearly as often.
Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.
Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.
A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.
Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.
Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.
Wit is the sudden marriage of ideas which, before their union, were not perceived to have any relation.
Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.
The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.
A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.
When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.
There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.
All emotion is involuntary when genuine.
Everything has its limit - iron ore cannot be educated into gold.
Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.
Necessity is the mother of taking chances.
Laws control the lesser man…Right conduct controls the greater one.
Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.
It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.
Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.
What, sir, would the people of the earth be without woman? They would be scarce, sir, almighty scarce.
Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.
A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.
The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.
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.
Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.
Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.
Drag your thoughts away from your troubles…by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.
Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered - either by themselves or by others.
Today could have been a bore with a trip to get my oil changed and run to the grocery store. However, the bright sunshine beckoned me for an explore. I knew I wasn’t feeling a hundred percent after my Covid quarantine, but a fifteen minute journey up the road to see Mark Twain’s cabin was too good to pass up. Thinking of the snow that is due tomorrow, I decided to go on a little adventure.
