Mark Twain

Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. The conviction of the rich that the poor are happier is no more foolish than the conviction of the poor that the rich are.

He is now rising from affluence to poverty.

We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that a savage has, because we know how it is made. We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter.

It is easier to stay out than get out.

The most difficult We do not deal in facts when we are contemplating ourselves.

It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.

Let them look up in the sky then…! if they must be so blind, that cannot see the truth in broad daylight, but must have the whole world in darkness to see the conceit of the stars…

When in doubt tell the truth.

Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.

The truth is that there is nothing noble in being superior to somebody else. The only real nobility is in being superior to your former self.

It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, ‘Go away, I’m looking for the truth.’ and so it goes away. Puzzling.

History is strewn thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill, but a lie, well told, is immortal.

For truth is precious and divine, too rich a pearl for carnal swine.

Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.

It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.

If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.

Tell me anyway–Maybe I can find the truth by comparing the lies.

The truth is sometimes a hard pill to swallow. It sometimes causes us difficulties at home and abroad. It is sometimes used by our enemies in attempts to hurt us. But the American people are entitled to it, nonetheless.

The truth knocks on the door and you say, Go away, I’m looking for the truth, and so it goes away. Puzzling.

Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain’t so.