Mark Twain

Everything has its limit – iron ore cannot be educated into gold.

The finest clothing made is a person’s own skin, but, of course, society demands something more than this.

Unconsciously we all have a standard by which we measure other men, and if we examine closely we find that this standard is a very simple one, and is this: we admire them, we envy them, for great qualities we ourselves lack. Hero worship consists in just that. Our heroes are men who do things which we recognize, with regret, and sometimes with a secret shame, that we cannot do. We find not much in ourselves to admire, we are always privately wanting to be like somebody else. If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.

It was the schoolboy who said, Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.

I repeat, sir, that in whatever position you place a woman she is an ornament to society and a treasure to the world. As a sweetheart, she has few equals and no superiors; as a cousin, she is convenient; as a wealthy grandmother with an incurable distemper, she is precious; as a wet-nurse, she has no equal among men. What, sir, would the people of the earth be without woman? They would be scarce, sir, almighty scarce.

We never become really and genuinely our entire and honest selves until we are dead – and not then until we have been dead years and years. People ought to start dead and then they would be honest so much earlier.

You either get it or you don’t. Become one of those who get it.

People are never so likely to be wrong as when they are organized. And they never have so little freedom. Perhaps that is why the people at large keep their freedom. People can be manipulated only when they are organized.

The present method of producing milk is too laborious. I believe that we can make milk by scientific process, eliminating the cow.

If you harbor hatred, anger, and bitterness (towards her), then you are absolutely locked into a bond through those negative emotions.

When you allow a person’s words to upset you, you’re giving away your power.

When I’m feeling anxious or depressed, I do find it helps to reach for a pen and paper. There is something about writing things down, that hand-eye combination, that makes me feel calmer.

Nothing is more difficult, in my opinion, than to avoid something that fundamentally attracts you.

All punishments by which the human body might be maimed are barbarbarism.

In the end, you’re just a renter anyway. You only own these things for as long as you live. After that, who knows? If I live until I’m 80, I’ll have 30 more years of collecting. If the collection is big enough, I’ll build a museum. And if not, I’ll leave it to a museum.

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don’t speak of yourself.

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.

Idleness is the reason for many of our troubles.

Many people are busy trying to find better ways of doing things that should not have to be done at all. There is no progress in merely finding a better way to do a useless thing.

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.

All this talk about equality. The only thing people really have in common is that they are all going to die.