Mark Twain

History is strewn thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill, but a lie, well told, is immortal.

A jay hasnt got any more principle than a Congressman. A jay will lie, a jay will steal, a jay will deceive, a jay will betray; and four times out of five, a jay will go back on his solemnest promise.

Nations do not think, they only feel. They get their feelings at second hand through their temperaments, not their brains. A nation can be brought – by force of circumstances, not argument – to reconcile itself to any kind of government or religion that can be devised; in time it will fit itself to the required conditions; later it will prefer them and will fiercely fight for them.

It is not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that make horseraces.

Virtue has never been as respectable as money.

We need not worry so much about what man descends from; it’s what he descends to that shames the human race.

Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.

Character is just another word for having a perfectly disciplined and educated will.

You are braver than you believe. Stronger than you seem. And smarter than you think.

The pleasure we feel in music springs from the obedience which is in it.

When any real progress is made, we unlearn and learn anew what we thought we knew before.

The receipts of cookery are swelled to a volume; but a good stomach excels them all.

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

Courage: the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.

Sympathy is a supporting atmosphere, and in it we unfold easily and well.

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.

I tell you there isn’t a thing under the sun that needs to be done at all, but what a man can do better than a woman, unless it’s bearing children, and they do that in a poor make-shift way; it had better been left to the men.

Nations! What are nations? Tartars! and Huns! and Chinamen! Like insects they swarm. The historian strives in vain to make them memorable. It is for want of a man that there are so many men. It is individuals that populate the world.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it come to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.