Mark Twain

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.

I do not like work even when someone else does it.

Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.

What, then, is the true Gospel of consistency? Change. Who is the really consistent man? The man who changes. Since change is the law of his being, he cannot be consistent if he stick in a rut.

Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.

People are much more willing to lend you books than bookcases.

It is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

I heartily accept the motto,That government is best which governs least; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe,That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.

A picture is a poem without words.

The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.

Depriving the oppressed of a beacon of hope could lose us the world we have built and thrived in. It could cost our reputation in history as the nation distinct from all others in our achievements, our identity, and our enduring influence on mankind. Our values are central to all three.

The longer we live the more we think and the higher the value we put on friendship and tenderness towards parents and friends.

To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most contemplate only what would be the accidental and trifling advantages of Friendship, as that the Friend can assist in time of need by his substance, or his influence, or his counsel. Even the utmost goodwill and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

Short words are the best and old words when short are best of all.

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

Self-realization is effortless. What you are trying to find is what you already are.

I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man’s virtues the means of deceiving him.

A fly may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.