Mark Twain

There are no grades of vanity, there are only grades of ability in concealing it.

I think a compliment ought to always precede a complaint, where one is possible, because it softens resentment and insures for the complaint a courteous and gentle reception.

A wise man does not waste so good a commodity as lying for naught.

Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.

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.

I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting.

In peace, as a wise man, he should make suitable preparation for war.

Train hard, turn up, run your best and the rest will take care of itself.

The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered but a general effect of pleasing impression.

Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.

Wherever there is power there is age.

Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.

The right merchant is one who has the just average of faculties we call common sense; a man of a strong affinity for facts, who makes up his decision on what he has seen. He is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic. There is always a reason, in the man, for his good or bad fortune in making money. Men talk as if there were some magic about this. He knows that all goes on the old road, pound for pound, cent for cent – for every effect a perfect cause – and that good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.

So of cheerfulness, or a good temper, the more it is spent, the more it remains.

In this magical hour, as the black ink sky fades to forget-me-not grey and the Cyprus trees emerge from the shadows, I tune in to my heart. In clarity, I choose to step into freedom to bring lightness of being and to be love.

It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

Wisdom is like electricity. There is no permanently wise man, but men capable of wisdom, who, being put into certain company, or other favorable conditions, become wise for a short time, as glasses rubbed acquire electric power for a while.

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.

Death is the king of this world: ‘Tis his park where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain are music for his banquet.

None of us should be defined by the worst thing we’ve ever done.