Mark Twain

Prosperity is the surest breeder of insolence I know.

When I was fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have him around. When I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.

Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.

As to the adjective, when in doubt strike it out.

Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.

Plain question and plain answer make the shortest road out of most perplexities.

Most people want to avoid pain, and discipline is usually painful.

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get out, and such as are out wish to get in?

The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the other.

The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.

An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

It is the false shame of fools to try to conceal wounds that have not healed.

Every great movement must experience three stages ridicule, discussion, adoption.

Whenever you are sincerely pleased you are nourished.

What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.

Real love begins when nothing is expected in return.

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.