Mark Twain

Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain’t so.

Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.

No sinner is ever saved after the first twenty minutes of a sermon.

I can live for two months on a good compliment.

There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark: – I wasn’t worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars.

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.

The cross of the Legion of Honor has been conferred on me. However, few escape that distinction.

All the sweetness of religion is conveyed to the world by the hands of story-tellers and image-makers. Without their fictions the truths of religion would for the multitude be neither intelligible nor even apprehensible; and the prophets would prophesy and the teachers teach in vain.

The secret of culture is to learn, that a few great points steadily reappear.

The secret of all good writing is sound judgment.

Friendship . . . is an Union of Spirits, a Marriage of Hearts, and the Bond thereof Vertue.

Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven’t courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.

Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study.

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

Compound for sins they are inclined to by damning those they have no mind to.

I would have the studies elective. Scholarship is to be created not by compulsion, but by awakening a pure interest in knowledge. The wise instructor accomplishes this by opening to his pupils precisely the attractions the study has for himself. The marking is a system for schools, not for the college; for boys, not for men; and it is an ungracious work to put on a professor.

Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.

There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object to it.