Mark Twain

When the doctrine of allegiance to party can utterly up-end a man’s moral constitution and make a temporary fool of him besides, what excuse are you going to offer for preaching it, teaching it, extending it, perpetuating it? Shall you say, the best good of the country demands allegiance to party? Shall you also say it demands that a man kick his truth and his conscience into the gutter, and become a mouthing lunatic, besides?

Don’t tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.

Where a blood relation sobs, an intimate friend should choke up, a distant acquaintance should sigh, a stranger should merely fumble sympathetically with his handkerchief.

If you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day will be wonderful.

Repartee is something we think of twenty-four hours too late.

I think a compliment ought to always precede a complaint, where one is possible, because it softens resentment and insures for the complaint a courteous and gentle reception.

What do we call love, hate, charity, revenge, humanity, forgiveness? Different results of the master impulse, the necessity of securing one’s self-approval.

Pain never really goes away; you just elevate and get used to it by growing stronger.

Often the surest way to convey misinformation is to tell the strict truth.

For Africa to me… is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.

In statesmanship get the formalities right, never mind about the moralities.

We are apt to love praise, but not deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love virtue more than that.

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.

If I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior.

True, there are architects so called in this country, and I have heard of one at least possessed with the idea of making architectural ornaments have a core of truth, a necessity, and hence a beauty, as if it were a revelation to him. All very well perhaps from his point of view, but only a little better than the common dilettantism.

When death comes it is never our tenderness that we repent from, but our severity.

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

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

A wise man does not waste so good a commodity as lying for naught.

Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. True power is within and available to you now.

Surrender is faith that the power of love can accomplish anything… even when you can not foresee the outcome.