Mark Twain

We are always too busy for our children; we never give them the time or interest they deserve. We lavish gifts upon them; but the most precious gift, our personal association, which means so much to them, we give grudgingly.

Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.

She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot.

Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

I make it a rule never to smoke while I’m sleeping.

He is useless on top of the ground; he ought to be under it, inspiring the cabbages.

In a mad world, only the mad are sane.

I find that when you have a real interest in life and a curious life, that sleep is not the most important thing.

The people change, the common denominator is you.

I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.

Sometimes it’s not enough to know what things mean, sometimes you have to know what things don’t mean.

I don’t think I’ve made mistakes. Every time somebody said I made a mistake, they do the polls and my numbers go up, so I guess I haven’t made any mistakes.

Who we are now is all that really matters.

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; In practice, there is.

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

Love thy neighbour as yourself, but choose your neighbourhood.

And I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinking.

The number one need in all people is the need for acceptance, the need to experience a sense of belonging to something and someone. The need for acceptance is more powerful in your family than anywhere else…. If that need is not met by your family, trust me, your kids will go elsewhere to seek it in order to find approval and acceptance.

I no longer feel the need of seeking out conscious Americanism. Because we live here and work here, we can be certain that when our music is mature it will also be American in quality.

A tiny leak can sink a ship.

My philosophy is to have a really good time and never to let anything stop me from doing what I want to do.