Mark Twain

Gratitude is a debt which usually goes on accumulating like blackmail; the more you pay, the more is exacted. In time, you are made to realize that the kindness done you is become a curse and you wish it had not happened.

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.

When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it’s a sure sign you’re getting old.

The true charm of pedestrianism does not lie in the walking, or in the scenery, but in the talking. The walking is good to time the movement of the tongue by, and to keep the blood and the brain stirred up and active; the scenery and the woodsy smells are good to bear in upon a man an unconscious and unobtrusive charm and solace to eye and soul and sense; but the supreme pleasure comes from the talk.

To succeed in life, you need to things: ignorance and confidence.

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

Can anybody remember when the times were not hard, and money not scarce?

Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

Raphael paints wisdom; Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it.

We must not inquire too curiously into motives… They are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light.

A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.

They say that history repeats itself, so if you don’t learn from the past you will make the same mistakes. So I have become an archaeologist of my own history. Digging up what has long since been buried, exhuming those forgotten fragments. Trying to distinguish what is real from folklore, trying to gain understanding, rather than relying on myths.

Why do you hasten to remove anything which hurts your eye, while if something affects your soul you postpone the cure until next year?

The late M. Venizelos observed that in all her wars Englandhe should have said Britain, of coursealways wins one battlethe last.

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.

It is your concern when your neighbor’s wall is on fire.

We live by our imagination, our admirations, and our sentiments.

Prosperity discovers vice, adversity discovers virtue.

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

Youth is wasted on the young.