Mark Twain

It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.

Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large mattertis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

The Christian’s Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same, but the medical practice changes.

I would rather have my ignorance than another man’s knowledge, because I have so much of it.

There are many scapegoats for our sins, but the most popular is providence.

Have a care, therefore, where there is more sail than ballast.

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

I am the flame, electric blue, lightening, razor-like, renewing my spirit. Heart beating in time to the earth’s rhythm and expanse of black ink sky, overreaching eternal. My fingertips spark with seeds of creation, fireworks coloring canvas, beckoned by this light that lifts me.

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

There is also this benefit in brag, that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor him by all means, draw it all out, and hold him to it.

Explore thyself. Herein are demanded the eye and the nerve.

Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.

The secret in education lies in respecting the student.

Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got.

Every great man, every successful man, no matter what the field of endeavor, has known the magic that lies in these words: every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.

This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.

Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again.

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

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.

The man who can make hard things easy is the educator.