Mark Twain

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

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.

My books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water.

The cross of the Legion of Honor has been conferred on me. However, few escape that distinction.

She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot.

There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

In traveling, a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.

Philosophers make imaginary laws for imaginary commonwealths, and their discourses are as the stars, which give little light because they are so high.

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

Commit a crime, and the earth is made of glass.

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

Necessity, who is the mother of invention.

What we become depends on what our fathers teach us.

Property is organized robbery.

The angels are so enamoured of the language that is spoken in heaven, that they will not distort their lips with the hissing and unmusical dialects of men, but speak their own, whether there be any who understand it or not.

I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.

What, then, is the true Gospel of consistency? Change. Who is the really consistent man? The man who changes. Since change is the law of his being, he cannot be consistent if he stick in a rut.

We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession.

As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.

You know you’re a success when you look at your kids and realize they turned out better than you.

Wherever work is done, victory is attained.