Mark Twain

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

To my mind Judas Iscariot was nothing but a low, mean, premature Congressman.

Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.

There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. Observe the ass, for instance: his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of feeling complimented when we are called an ass, we are left in doubt.

If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.

Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man. The biography of the man himself cannot be written.

Talk about slavery! It is not the peculiar institution of the South. It exists wherever men are bought and sold, wherever a man allows himself to be made a mere thing or a tool, and surrenders his inalienable rights of reason and conscience. Indeed, this slavery is more complete than that which enslaves the body alone… I never yet met with, or heard of, a judge who was not a slave of this kind, and so the finest and most unfailing weapon of injustice. He fetches a slightly higher price than the black men only because he is a more valuable slave.

Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to be quite true.

Every person is a God in embryo. Its only desire is to be born.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

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

In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.

No thought, no reflection, no analysis, no cultivation, no intention; let it settle itself.

Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short, in all the management of human affairs.

The course of everything goes to teach us faith.

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.

The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.

What is the most rigorous law of our being? Growth. No smallest atom of our moral, mental, or physical structure can stand still a year. It grows – it must grow; nothing can prevent it.

Never read any book that is not a year old.

Be confident, not certain

There’s much more stupidity than there is malice in the world.