Mark Twain

The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application, and perseverance under the prompting of a brave, determined spirit.

There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.

There are two types of speakers, those that are nervous and those that are liars.

Wit is the sudden marriage of ideas which before their union were not perceived to have any relation.

The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.

What is the most rigorous law of our being? Growth. No smallest atom of our moral, mental, or physical structure can stand still a year. It grows – it must grow; nothing can prevent it.

An empire is an immense egotism.

A hen is only a egg’s way of making another egg.

Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

All those moments are alive in us today. We may not visit them anymore, very often, but we carry them in our DNA, our blood, our bones; informing the breadth and beauty of who we now are; our lesson to be lived.

If any man cannot feel the power of God when he looks upon the stars, then I doubt whether he is capable of any feeling at all. [Ut haec ipsa qui non sentiat deorum vim habere is nihil omnino sensurus esse videatur.]

A bargain is something you can’t use at a price you can’t resist.

Awareness is the greatest agent for change.

I dip my pen in the blackest ink, because I am not afraid of falling into my inkpot.

Time is but the stream I go fishing in. I drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. It’s thin current slides away, but eternity remains.

To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

No one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourself.

I was exceedingly delighted with the waltz, and also with the polka. These differ in name, but there the difference ceases

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

The truth is, hardly any of us have ethical energy enough for more than one really inflexible point of honor.