Mark Twain

The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.

Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child’s loss of a doll and a king’s loss of a crown are events of the same size.

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

There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.

Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.

To cease smoking is the easiest thing I ever did; I ought to know because I’ve done it a thousand times.

Friends are true Twins in Soul; they Sympathize in every thing, and have the Love and Aversion. One is not happy without the other, nor can either of them be miserable alone. As if they could change Bodies, they take their turns in Pain as well as in Pleasure; relieving one another in their most adverse Conditions.What one enjoys, the other cannot Want. Like the Primitive Christians, they have all things in common, and no Property but in one another.

Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.

Repartee is something we think of twenty-four hours too late.

Tell everyone what you want to do and someone will want to help you do it.

I would not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.

There is nothing that can be changed more completely than human nature when the job is taken in hand early enough.

There are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven’t started wondering about yet.

Between us, we cover all knowledge; he knows all that can be known and I know the rest.

The reward of one’s duty is the power to fulfill another.

Shallow people believe in luck and in circumstances; Strong people believe in cause and effect.

While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one.

How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child’s board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.

We run to win, not just to be in the race.

His scorn of the great is repeated too often to be real; no man thinks much of that which he despises.