Mark Twain

Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world – and never will.

Adam was the luckiest man; he had no mother-in-law.

A man can seldom – very, very, seldom – fight a winning fight against his training; the odds are too heavy.

Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary.

When the doctrine of allegiance to party can utterly up-end a man’s moral constitution and make a temporary fool of him besides, what excuse are you going to offer for preaching it, teaching it, extending it, perpetuating it? Shall you say, the best good of the country demands allegiance to party? Shall you also say it demands that a man kick his truth and his conscience into the gutter, and become a mouthing lunatic, besides?

The human race was always interesting and we know by its past that it will always continue so, monotonously.

The Mona Lisa, the Mona Lisa….Leonardo had eye trouble….Art couldn’t explain it….But now we’re safe, since science can explain it. Maybe Milton wrote Paradise Lost because he was blind? And Beethoven wrote the Ninth Symphony because he was deaf…

Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’

I answer the heroic question Death where is thy sting? It is here in my heart and mind and memories

Can you really explain to a fish what it’s like to walk on land? One day on land is worth a thousand years of talking about it, and one day running a business has exactly the same kind of value.

You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.

The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.

Softness has such a power to it. When you choose to soften into something, it relaxes, opens, tension releases. Stuck energy flows like blood coursing through veins, bringing much needed oxygen. Life force and warmth enters, connection is rekindled. Find the trust you need to allow softness in; it really is healing.

Dare to think for yourself.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

A man’s style is his mind’s voice. Wooden minds, wooden voices.

How could a man be satisfied with a decision between such alternatives and under such circumstances? No more than he can be satisfied with his hat, which he’s chosen from among such shapes as the resources of the age offer him, wearing it at best with a resignation which is chiefly supported by comparison.

A sudden bold and unexpected question does many times surprise a man and lay him open.

There is nothing that will kill a man so soon as having nobody to find fault with but himself.

Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.