Mark Twain

It isn’t safe to sit in judgment upon another person’s illusion when you are not on the inside. While you are thinking it is a dream, he may be knowing it is a planet.

If I were required to guess off-hand, and without collusion with higher minds, what is the bottom cause of the amazing material and intellectual advancement of the last fifty years, I should guess that it was the modern-born and previously non-existent disposition on the part of men to believe that a new idea can have value.

Repartee is something we think of twenty-four hours too late.

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.

I refused to attend his funeral. But I wrote a very nice letter explaining that I approved of it.

But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?

Someday is not a day of the week.

Talent is formed in solitude, character in the bustle of the world.

When you make a promise, keep it.

Whether it’s eight o’clock in the morning or eight o’clock at night, I always try to greet others before they have a chance to speak to me.

That’s how we do it… we give back to the people who made us who we are. We never forget that.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt.

The character ethic, which I believe to be the foundation of success, teaches that there are basic principles of effective living, and that people can only experience true success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character.

What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate.

I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.

It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through.

It was a feeling I had. People were taught how to think, we’re taught how to feel. We don’t know how to think for ourselves, [and] we don’t know how to feel for ourselves. People say ‘Feel free,’ but they don’t really want us to feel free. I felt a freedom, first of all, doing something that everybody tells you not to do.

There were no role models, there were no other people I knew who were dealing with the same issues that I was dealing with. I had no idea if this was a stage I was going through or not. But I go to the draft board in Brooklyn and I fill out the form and there was a question that said ‘Do you have homosexual tendencies?’ and I check yes. But where-ever I was on line I’d see people I went to high school with and I was afraid of anyone knowing this about me so I kept on falling back into line and falling back into line. If you said you had homosexual tendencies they sent you to a psychiatrist. He said ‘I see here you’ve checked the box?’ And I said ‘yup’. He said ‘So do you think you’d have a problem serving in the armed forces?’ I said well you know ‘So many men.’ And I was out of the service.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life.