Mark Twain

I am a democrat only on principle, not by instinct – nobody is that. Doubtless some people say they are, but this world is grievously given to lying.

I would rather have my ignorance than another man’s knowledge, because I have so much of it.

The lack of money is the root of all evils.

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. The conviction of the rich that the poor are happier is no more foolish than the conviction of the poor that the rich are.

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

The billiard table is better than the doctor.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

I thought about writing a poem explaining how when you are lost at sea, even if you are rescued and survive, you never really come back. Then I realized everyone that’s ever been in love would already understand.

I am against nature. I don’t dig nature at all. I think nature is very unnatural. I think the truly natural things are dreams, which nature can’t touch with decay.

The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.

You get what you ask for in this life. If you ask for nothing, you get nothing.

I think; therefore I am.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

The truth is, I think we are a self-less society, not a selfish society. Because we’re so busy now.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.

Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.

In order to succeed you must fail so you know what to do better the next time.

Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised.