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Mark Twain

Mark Twain Quotes

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Famous Mark Twain Quotes

“an Autobiography is the truest of all books; for while it inevitably consists mainly of extinctions of the truth, shirkings of the truth, partial revealments of the truth, with hardly an instance of plain straight truth, the remorseless truth is there, between the lines, where the author-cat is raking dust upon it which hides from the disinterested spectator neither it nor its smell... the result being that the reader knows the author in spite of his wily diligences.”

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Book:The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain
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“My brother had just been appointed Secretary of Nevada Territory--an office of such majesty that it concentrated in itself the duties and dignities of Treasurer, Comptroller, Secretary of State, and Acting Governor in the Governor's absence. A salary of eighteen hundred dollars a year and the title of "Mr. Secretary," gave to the great position an air of wild and imposing grandeur. I was young and ignorant, and I envied my brother.”

YearsBookStatesYoungActingAirPositionBrotherDutyOfficeHundredDignityDollarsAbsenceIgnorantTitlesMy BrotherTerritoryGovernorsSecretaryMajestySalaryGrandeurEighteenImposingEnviedNevadaTreasurer
Book:10 Books in 1
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“It was in 1590--winter. Austria was far away from the world, and asleep; it was still the Middle Ages in Austria, and promised to remain so forever. Some even set it away back centuries upon centuries and said that by the mental and spiritual clock it was still the Age of Belief in Austria. But they meant it as a compliment, not a slur, and it was so taken, and we were all proud of it. I remember it well, although I was only a boy; and I remember, too, the pleasure it gave me.”

WorldWellsSaidStillsBookAgeRememberSpiritualBeliefPleasureBoysForeverTakenMiddleCenturyProudWinterClockComplimentFar AwayMiddle AgesAustriaSlurs
Book:The Mysterious Stranger
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“I do not see how astronomers can help feeling exquisitely insignificant, for every new page of the Book of the Heavens they open reveals to them more and more that the world we are so proud of is to the universe of careening globes as is one mosquito to the winged and hoofed flocks and herds that darken the air and populate the plains and forests of all the earth. If you killed the mosquito would it be missed? Verily, What is Man, that he should be considered of God?”

IfsMenWorldShouldBookHelpingFeelingsEarthUniverseHeavenAirProudPagesForestsGlobesInsignificantHerdsFlocksAstronomersMosquitoes
Author:Mark Twain
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“Heroine: Girl in a book who is saved from drowning by a hero and marries him next week, but if it was to be over again ten years later it is likely she would rather have a life-belt and he would rather have her have it. Hero: Person in a book who does things which he can't and girl marries him for it.”

IfsYearsPersonsDoeBookGirlNextWeekHeroTenSavedBeltsDrowningHeroinesNext Week
Book:Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches & Essays: 1891-1910
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“There are no witches. The witch text remains; only the practice has changed. Hell fire is gone, but the text remains. Infant damnation is gone, but the text remains. More than two hundred death penalties are gone from the law books, but the texts that authorized them remain.”

TwoBookLawPracticeGoneHellFireChangedHundredRemainsWitchPenaltiesInfantDeath PenaltyDamnationHell FireLaw Books
Book:Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations
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“Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”

LifeBookInspirationFunnyLife IsReadingFriendshipInspirational LifeFriendsConscienceMy FriendsIdealsSatisfiedThis LifeContentmentGood LifeIronicHappy LifeGood FriendBad AssLife And LoveMy Best FriendGood BookBook ReadingMy FriendshipYour Best FriendAbout FriendshipSleepyBooks And ReadingOne Line FriendshipBest FriendshipFriendship DayCute FriendshipFunny FriendInspirational FriendshipFunny FriendshipHappy FriendshipWriters ReadingClear ConscienceJoy Of ReadingNew FriendshipHappy Friendship DayBeautiful FriendshipLife Is Not Worth LivingFriendship And LifeBeing A Good FriendAmazing LifeWonderful FriendshipSweet FriendshipFunny Best FriendNice LifeReally Cute Best FriendGood FriendshipLong FriendshipReading Good BooksFavourite BookIdeal LifeInspiring BookGood ReadingValuable LifeFunniest FriendsGood ReadsReading LifeFair Weather FriendLife Is Like A Book
Book:Bite-Size Twain: Wit and Wisdom from the Literary Legend
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“Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.”

LifeMayBookFunnyDiesReadingFoodInspirational LifeHealthSickAgingCarefulCleverSarcasmSarcasticBe CarefulFitnessEpicBook ReadingHealth And WellnessGet WellNatural HealthHealth FoodWorld HealthInspirational HealthBeing SickWellness And FitnessReading Good BooksGet Well SoonWell SoonHealth And Life
Book:Bite-Size Twain: Wit and Wisdom from the Literary Legend
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“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.”

MenInspirationalWritingDoeBookAgeReadingInspiringEducationTeachLearningInspirational LifeWise WordsHumorousAdvantageEntrepreneurWittyEducationalReading BooksPublishersLiteracyGood BookBook ReadingLecturerHumoristsEpigramsBooks And ReadingGood EducationEducation And TeachersSchools And EducationGreat EducationalLibrary BooksMotivational LeadershipReading HabitsLibraries And LibrariansQuality EducationOld BooksLearning To ReadI Can ReadWriters ReadingJoy Of ReadingEducation And LiteracyLibraries Books And ReadingReading And LiteracyLibraries And ReadingSchool LibraryGreat ReadingReading Good BooksBook LearningGood ReadingJoy Of LearningLearned PersonEducational ChangeInteresting BookReading LiteratureReading And Learning
Book:The Prince and the Pauper (StoneHenge Classics)
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“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

InspirationalWritingBookFunnyDifferencesCommunicationDrinkSkillsHumorousEntrepreneurWordsBeerCommunication SkillsLightningPublishersBugsCreative WritingGreat WritersWriters And WritingLecturerHumoristsWritten WordEpigramsWriting By WritersGreat WritingRight WordsRewritingEffective CommunicationInspiring WritingGood CommunicationStory WritersCreative WritersGreat CommunicationLanguage And PowerClear CommunicationWithout Communication
Book:Mark Twain on Common Sense: Timeless Advice and Words of Wisdom from America's Most-Revered Humorist
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“It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.”

BookCountryWisdomThreePoliticsFreedomLibertyPracticeDrinkSpeechGoodnessConscienceOur CountryBeerPatrioticFavouriteFree SpeechFreedom Of SpeechPrudence4th Of JulyFreedom LibertyPrecious ThingsGoodness Of GodIndependence And FreedomEquatorLimiting Freedom Of ExpressionLiberty Of Speech
Author:Mark Twain
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“You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, burning bushes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones that need help?”

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Author:Mark Twain
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“I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”

WantWritingI CanBookHateHavensPrideReaderBeatsCriticismI HatePrejudiceBonesCriticizeJaneSkullsNovel WritingFrenzyAustenPride And Prejudice BookMadden
Author:Mark Twain
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“What a wee little part of a person's life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself. All day long, the mill of his brain is grinding, and his thoughts, not those of other things, are his history. These are his life, and they are not written. Everyday would make a whole book of 80,000 words -- 365 books a year. Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man -- the biography of the man himself cannot be written.”

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Author:Mark Twain
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“The face of the water, in time, became a wonderful book- a book that was a dead language to the uneducated passenger, but which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it uttered them with a voice. And it was not a book to be read once and thrown aside, for it had a new story to tell every day.”

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Book:The Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated Edition): Novels, Short Stories, Memoir, Travel Books, Letters, Biography, Articles & Speeches: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, Yankee in King Arthur's Court…
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“Which is him?" The grammar was faulty, maybe, but we could not know, then, that it would go in a book someday.”

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Book:Mark Twain, the Globetrotter: Complete Travel Books, Memoirs & Anecdotes (Illustrated Edition): A Tramp Abroad, The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, Old Times on the Mississippi, Life on the Mississippi, Following the Equator & Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion, With Author’s Biography
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