Mark Twain

There isn’t a single human characteristic that can be safely labeled as American.

All you need is ignorance and confidence and the success is sure.

Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool.

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it – and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again – and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.

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.

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

The hues of the opal, the light of the diamond, are not to be seen if the eye is too near.

Shallow people believe in luck and in circumstances; Strong people believe in cause and effect.

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.

The most beautiful woman is the one who is never divulging, she knows what she is and everything else is worth her.

The god of victory is said to be one-handed, but peace gives victory on both sides.

It’s not the adversity, but how you face it.

Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter, like dancing dogs.

The greatest genius is the most indebted person.

In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.

We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society, for nothing suffocates the promise of America more than unbounded cynicism and indifference.

Courage: the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until an equal mind and heart finds and publishes it.

Very few people can afford to be poor.

The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.