Mark Twain

18 quotes

Lived: 1835 – 1910
Era: 19th–20th century
Place: Hannibal, Missouri / Hartford, Connecticut, USA

American humorist and novelist (Samuel Clemens); sharp wit on courage, folly, and the Mississippi world.

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Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.
— Mark TwainCourage
It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.
— Mark TwainCourage
Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.
— Mark TwainSmile
Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed down-stairs a step at a time.
— Mark TwainSmile
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
— Mark TwainSmile
Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.
— Mark TwainSmile
Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
— Mark TwainSmile
Grief can take care of itself; but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.
— Mark TwainSmile
It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse-races.
— Mark TwainSmile
Be careless in your dress if you must, but keep a tidy soul.
— Mark TwainSmile
There isn’t a Parallel of Latitude but thinks it would have been the Equator if it had had its rights.
— Mark TwainSmile
The Autocrat of Russia possesses more power than any other man in the earth; but he cannot stop a sneeze.
— Mark TwainSmile
Consider well the proportions of things. It is better to be a young June-bug than an old bird of paradise.
— Mark TwainSmile
We know all about the habits of the ant, we know all about the habits of the bee, but we know nothing at all about the habits of the oyster. It seems almost certain that we have been choosing the wrong time for studying the oyster.
— Mark TwainSmile
None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try.
— Mark TwainSmile
I have traveled more than anyone else, and I have noticed that even the angels speak English with an accent.
— Mark TwainSmile
Make it a point to do something every day that you don’t want to do. This is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.
— Mark TwainSmile
Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was, that they escaped teething.
— Mark TwainSmile