Mark Twain

If He Tom Sawyer had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do and Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

The most interesting information come from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.

The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain’t so.

Principles aren’t of much account anyway, except at election time. After that you hang them up to let them season.

Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions.

Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.

If thou wouldn’t conquer thy weakness thou must not gratify it.

There is no daily chore so trivial that it cannot be made important by skipping it two days running.

I am a democrat only on principle, not by instinct – nobody is that. Doubtless some people say they are, but this world is grievously given to lying.

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.

The American Constitution, one of the few modern political documents drawn up by men who were forced by the sternest circumstances to think out what they really had to face, instead of chopping logic in a university classroom.

Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.

The wise man applauds he who he thinks most virtuous; the rest of the world applauds the wealthy.

The soul’s emphasis is always right.

Think of and look at your work as though it were done by your enemy. I you look at it to admire it, you are lost.

I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.

The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them.

Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God.

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes, than a public library.

Our most important task is to transform our consciousness so that violence is no longer an option for us in our personal lives, that understanding that a world of peace is possible only if we relate to each other as peaceful beings, one individual at a time.