Mark Twain

Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.

The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them.

I know the look of an apple that is roasting and sizzling on the hearth on a winter’s evening, and I know the comfort that comes of eating it hot, along with some sugar and a drench of cream… I know how the nuts taken in conjunction with winter apples, cider, and doughnuts, make old people’s tales and old jokes sound fresh and crisp and enchanting.

As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep and never to refrain when awake.

The wit knows that his place is at the tail of a procession.

Between us, we cover all knowledge; he knows all that can be known and I know the rest.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

Silence is the great teacher, and to learn its lessons you must pay attention to it. There is no substitute for the creative inspiration, knowledge, and stability that come from knowing how to contact your core of inner silence. The great Sufi poet Rumi wrote, Only let the moving waters calm down, and the sun and moon will be reflected on the surface of your being.

Rituals are important. Nowadays it’s hip not to be married. I’m not interested in being hip.

You will have bad times, but they will always wake you up to the stuff you weren’t paying attention to.

Solitude is dangerous to reason, without being favorable to virtue. Remember that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad.

Suspicions that the mind, of itself, gathers, are but buzzes; but suspicions that are artificially nourished and put into men’s heads by the tales and whisperings of others, have stings.

The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.

Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.

Any fool can make a rule, and every fool will mind it.

This comes of James teaching me to think for myself, and never to hold back out of fear of what other people may think of me. It works beautifully as long as I think the same things as he does.

We feel at first as if some opportunities of kindness and sympathy were lost, but learn afterward that any pure grief is ample recompense for all. That is, if we are faithful; for a spent grief is but sympathy with the soul that disposes events, and is as natural as the resin of Arabian trees. Only nature has a right to grieve perpetually, for she only is innocent. Soon the ice will melt, and the blackbirds sing along the river which he frequented, as pleasantly as ever. The same everlasting serenity will appear in this face of God, and we will not be sorrowful, if he is not.

A wicked fellow is the most pious when he takes to it. He’ll beat you all at piety.

The natural law of inertia: Matter will remain at rest or continue in uniform motion in the same straight line unless acted upon by some external force.

Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.

I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.