Mark Twain

I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.

Gratitude is a debt which usually goes on accumulating like blackmail; the more you pay, the more is exacted. In time, you are made to realize that the kindness done you is become a curse and you wish it had not happened.

Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.

When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it’s a sure sign you’re getting old.

Golf is a good walk spoiled.

The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain’t so.

Avoid popularity it has many snares and no real benefit.

Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children.

For every why he had a wherefore.

We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don’t know anything and can’t read.

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.

No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.

Friends… they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.

Danger – if you meet it promptly and without flinching – you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!

It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

Man was made at the end of the week’s work when God was tired.

There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow, but there is something in it so like virtue, that he who is wholly without it cannot be loved.

The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.

Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.