Mark Twain

We had the sky up there, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss whether they was made or just happened.

A monarch, when good, is entitled to the consideration which we accord to a pirate who keeps Sunday School between crimes; when bad, he is entitled to none at all.

It is by the goodness of God that we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

The newspaper that obstructs the law on a trivial pretext, for money’s sake, is a dangerous enemy to the public weal.That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.

When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.

Temperate temperance is best; intemperate temperance injures the cause of temperance.

To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.

Our necessities are few, but our wants are endless.

A sudden bold and unexpected question does many times surprise a man and lay him open.

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

To be furious in religion is to be irreligiously religious.

Those who trust us educate us.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

They are not only idle who do nothing, but they are idle also who might be better employed.

If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.

The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.

One may discover a new side to his most intimate friend when for the first time he hears him speak in public. He will be stranger to him as he is more familiar to the audience. The longest intimacy could not foretell how he would behave then

During my life, I have had a few nightmares which happened to me while I was wide awake.

The great advantage of a hotel is that it is a refuge from home life.

I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved. I am not sure that you are of the same kind. But the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave. This is the world of light and speech, and I shall take leave to tell you that you are very dear.

Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it.