Mark Twain

Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

I can live for two months on a good compliment.

Never learn to do anything. If you don’t learn, you will always find someone else to do it for you.

I was young and foolish then; now I am old and foolisher.

The true charm of pedestrianism does not lie in the walking, or in the scenery, but in the talking. The walking is good to time the movement of the tongue by, and to keep the blood and the brain stirred up and active; the scenery and the woodsy smells are good to bear in upon a man an unconscious and unobtrusive charm and solace to eye and soul and sense; but the supreme pleasure comes from the talk.

The billiard table is better than the doctor.

If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking.

Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.

When women come up to me like, ‘I am a freaking senator,’ or, ‘I’m a doctor,’ it’s like, ‘Damn, y’all like me? I look up to y’all!’

Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.

For to tempt and to be tempted are things very nearly allied – whenever feeling has anything to do in the matter, no sooner is it excited than we have already gone vastly farther than we are aware of.

You must learn that you do not have to be angry just because you have the right to be.

You have to know how to defend yourself.

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

I don’t read history. That’s in the past. I’m thinking of the future.

There is an interconnectedness among members that bonds the family, much like mountain climbers who rope themselves together when climbing a mountain, so that if someone should slip or need support, he’s held up by the others until he regains his footing.

It doesn’t matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I’m a woman or a man.

I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn’t know.

You are your own most important resource for making your life work. Life rewards action. Until your knowledge, awareness, insights, and understandings are translated into action, they are of no value.

Don’t wait until you’re in a crisis to come up with a crisis plan.