Mark Twain

Nations do not think, they only feel. They get their feelings at second hand through their temperaments, not their brains. A nation can be brought – by force of circumstances, not argument – to reconcile itself to any kind of government or religion that can be devised; in time it will fit itself to the required conditions; later it will prefer them and will fiercely fight for them.

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.

One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.

Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.

Let me make the superstitions of a nation and I care not who makes its laws or its songs either.

Obscurity and competence: That is the life that is worth living.

Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.

Bondage is… subjection to external influences and internal negative thoughts and attitudes.

Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see.

Physically there is nothing to distinguish human society from the farm-yard except that children are more troublesome and costly than chickens and calves and that men and women are not so completely enslaved as farm stock.

We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.

The only way to know is to live, learn, and grow.

The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.

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

The first half of life consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity.

I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me.

Wherever work is done, victory is attained.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits not because recompense is a pleasure for them, but because obligation is a pain.

Undeservedly you will atone for the sins of your fathers.

It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy – but he who has shown the better temper.