Mark Twain

When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet deep down in his private heart no man much respects himself.

Monarchies, aristocracies, and religions are all based upon that large defect in your race – the individual’s distrust of his neighbor, and his desire, for safety’s or comfort’s sake, to stand well in his neighbor’s eye. These institutions will always remain, and always flourish, and always oppress you, affront you, and degrade you, because you will always be and remain slaves of minorities. There was never a country where the majority of the people were in their secret hearts loyal to any of these institutions.

There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

If He Tom Sawyer had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do and Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

Classic – A book which people praise and don’t read.

Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!

Englishmen hate Liberty and Equality too much to understand them. But every Englishman loves a pedigree.

Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.

Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them.

Let the world burn through you. Throw the prism light, white hot, on paper.

The quickest way to become troubled is to be concerned with what people are gonna say about your life and your work.

We worship not the Graces, nor the Parcae, but Fashion. She spins and weaves and cuts with full authority. The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveler’s cap, and all the monkeys in America do the same.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

I don’t need an alarm clock. My ideas wake me.

Knowledge is more than equivalent to force.

It is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does.

I wish for you the wisdom to realize that forgiveness has nothing to do with an apology.

The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.

A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself.