Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 - 1910) was an American humorist with the pseudonym of "Mark Twain," born at Florida, Missouri, U.S.. He began his literary career as a newspaper reporter and a lecturer. His first book was "The Jumping Frog". He visited Europe, described in the "Innocents Abroad". Twain married a lady of fortune. He wrote largely in his peculiar humorous vein, such as the "Tramp Abroad" and produced a drama entitled the "Gilded Age," and compiled the "Memoirs of General Grant".Wisdom & Quotes
- As to the Adjective: When in doubt, strike it out.
- It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been still more wonderful to miss it.
- When angry, count four; when very angry, swear.
- There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.
- Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
- It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse races.
- If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
- Put all your eggs in one basket - and watch that basket.
- The holy passion of friendship is so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring in nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.
- Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
- The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven.
- Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education.
- Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.
- A baby is an inestimable blessing and bother.
- We have ground the manhood out of them, and the shame is ours not theirs, and we should pay for it.
- A coin, sleeve button, or a collar button dropped in a bedroom will hide itself and be hard to find. A handkerchief in bed can't be found.
- Familiarity breeds contempt - and children.
- There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.
- Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.
- When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
- Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing the matter with this, except that it ain't so.
- We write frankly and freely but then we 'modify' before we print.
- All the modern inconveniences.
- The report of my death was an exaggeration.
- Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
- All kings are mostly rapscallions.
- Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.
- Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
- Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run.
- All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.
- Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
- A thoroughly beautiful woman and a thoroughly homely woman are creations which I love to gaze upon, and which I cannot tire of gazing upon, for each is perfect in her own line.
- The difference between the almost right word and the right word is rarely a large matter - 'tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.
Samuel Butler the novelist