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Mark Twain

Mark Twain Quotes

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Famous Mark Twain Quotes

“I have been scientifically studying the traits and dispositions of the "lower animals" (so-called,) and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result profoundly humiliating to me. For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals; since it now seems plain to me that that theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one, this new and truer one to be named the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.”

MenHas BeensSeemsScienceAnimalResultsStudyTheoryOughtHigherFavorsTraitsDispositionAllegianceRenounceDescentHumiliatingAscent
Book:What Is Man? and Other Philosophical Writings
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“There is only one expert who is qualified to examine the souls and the life of a people and make a valuable report - the native novelist. ... And when a thousand able novels have been written, there you have the soul of the people; and not anywhere else can these be had.”

PeopleHas BeensSoulAbleReadingNovelWrittenThousandValuableNovelistsExpertsReportsNativeQualified
Book:Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations
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“If the bubble reputation can be obtained only at the cannon's mouth, I am willing to go there for it, provided the cannon is empty. If it is loaded my immortal and inflexible purpose is to get over the fence and go home. My invariable practice in war has been to bring out of every fight two-thirds more men than when I went in. This seems to me Napoleonic in its grandeur.”

IfsMenHas BeensTwoWarHomeSeemsPurposeFightingPracticeWillingMouthsEmptyThirdsReputationImmortalBubblesGet OverFenceGrandeurLoadedCannonsNapoleonic
Book:Tales, Speeches, Essays, and Sketches
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“As I have said before, I never had any large respect for good spelling. That is my feeling yet. Before the spelling-book came with its arbitrary forms, men unconsciously revealed shades of their characters, and also added enlightening shades of expression to what they wrote by their spelling, and so it is possible that the spelling-book has been a doubtful benevolence to us.”

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Book:The Complete Works of Mark Twain: All 13 Novels, Short Stories, Poetry and Essays
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“So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked.”

MenHas BeensCountrySeemsAbleLeftSunJudgingIndiaExtraordinaryRoundsForgottenHinduismUndoneOverlookedIndependence DayIndependence Day PatrioticRepublic DayIndia Independence DayIndian Independence DayIndian PatrioticMake In India
Book:The Writings of Mark Twain: Following the equator; a journey around the world
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“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”

GivingHas BeensIdeasUseAgeTurnsPiecesImpossibleInnovationGlassesCuriousCombinationNew IdeasOld IdeasKaleidoscopeColored Glass
Book:The Complete Novels of Mark Twain (Illustrated): 12 American Classics & Author’s Biography: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, A Horse’s Tale, The Prince and the Pauper, The American Claimant, The Mysterious Stranger…
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“Suppose . . . burglars had made entry into this . . . [library]. Picture them seated here on this floor, pouring the light of their dark-lanterns over some books they found, and thus absorbing moral truths and getting moral uplift. The whole course of their lives would have been changed. As it was, they kept straight on in their immoral way and were sent to jail. For all I know, they may next be sent to Congress.”

KnowsWayLifeMayHas BeensMadeBookWholeLightCoursesNextFoundDarkMoralChangedLibraryCongressUpliftingJailImmoralEntryPouringAbsorbingLanternsBurglars
Author:Mark Twain
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“I am persuaded that the world has been tricked into adopting some false and most pernicious notions about consistency - and to such a degree that the average man has turned the rights and wrongs of things entirely around and is proud to be "consistent," unchanging, immovable, fossilized, where it should be his humiliation.”

MenWorldShouldHas BeensRightsProudDegreesNotionAverageConsistentConsistencyHumiliationThings ChangePerniciousAdoptingUnchangingAverage ManRights And Wrongs
Book:Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations
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“Crowds stand around all day long and criticise that bridge, and find fault with it, and tell with unlimited frankness how it ought to have been planned, and how they would have built it had the city granted them the $14,000 it cost. It is really refreshing to hang around these and listen to them. A foreigner would come to the conclusion that all America was composed of inspired professional bridge builders.”

LongHas BeensAmericaCitiesOughtCostBuiltFaultsInspiredCrowdsConclusionGrantedBridgesUnlimitedForeignersBuilderRefreshingCriticiseFrankness
Author:Mark Twain
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“I have been reading the morning paper. I do it every morning-knowing well that I shall find in it the usual depravities and basenesses and hypocrisies and cruelties that make up civilization, and cause me to put in the rest of the day pleading for the damnation of the human race. I cannot seem to get my prayers answered, yet I do not despair.”

HumansWellsHas BeensSeemsReadingCausesPrayerRaceMorningKnowingCivilizationDespairPaperCrueltyHuman RaceHypocrisyUsualEvery MorningDamnationDepravityPleadingAnswered PrayersBaseness
Author:Mark Twain
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“I have witnessed and greatly enjoyed the first act of everything which Wagner created, but the effect on me has always been so powerful that one act was quite sufficient; whenever I have witnessed two acts I have gone away physically exhausted; and whenever I have ventured an entire opera the result has been the next thing to suicide.”

FirstsHas BeensTwoFunnyNextResultsPowerfulGoneEffectsHumorousSuicideEnjoyedSufficientSarcasmSarcasticOperaExhaustedWagnerGone Away
Book:Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review
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