Quotessence
Home / Authors / Mark Twain
Mark Twain

Mark Twain Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsPeopleFunnyKnowsWayInspirationalWorldHumorHumansInspirationYearsBookLifeReligionThinkingTwoHas BeensWritingLying

Famous Mark Twain Quotes

“It liberates the vandal to travel-you never saw a bigoted, opinionated, stubborn, narrow-minded, self-conceited, almighty mean man in your life but he had stuck in one place since he was born and thought God made the world and dyspepsia and bile for his especial comfort and satisfaction.”

MenWorldMeanMadeSelfBornSawsComfortTravelSatisfactionStuckBigotryAlmightyStubbornConceitedOpinionatedNarrow-mindedNarrow MindsVandalsMean Man
Book:The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain
Create image

“The statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”

MenWarSelfTruthPoliticalLyingNationsPeaceProcessEnjoySleepStudyConscienceBlameRefuseEvery ManGladTyrannyDeceptionConvinceTyrantsThank GodAntiwarSelf DeceptionStatesmenSoothingGrotesqueFalsityRefutationWar Propaganda
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…
Create image

“We are always hearing of people who are around seeking after the Truth. I have never seen a (permanent) specimen. I think he has never lived. But I have seen several entirely sincere people who thought they were (permanent) Seekers after the Truth. They sought diligently, persistently, carefully, cautiously, profoundly, with perfect honesty and nicely adjusted judgment- until they believed that without doubt or question they had found the Truth. That was the end of the search. The man spent the rest of his hunting up shingles wherewith to protect his Truth from the weather.”

PeopleThinkingMenEndsTruthFoundPerfectDoubtHonestyHe ManProtectJudgmentSeekingHearingWeatherPermanentSincereHuntingSeekersShingles
Author:Mark Twain
Create image

“An injurious truth has no merit over an injurious lie. Neither should ever be uttered. The man who speaks an injurious truth, lest his soul be not saved if he do otherwise, should reflect that that sort of a soul is not strictly worth saving.”

IfsMenShouldSoulTruthLyingSpeakHe ManSavedSavingMerit
Book:The Complete Works of Mark Twain: All 13 Novels, Short Stories, Poetry and Essays
Create image

“In America, we hurry-which is well; but when the day's work is done, we go on thinking of losses and gains, we plan for the morrow, we even carry our business cares to bed with us...we burn up our energies with these excitements, and either die early or drop into a lean and mean old age at a time of life which they call a man's prime in Europe...What a robust people, what a nation of thinkers we might be, if we would only lay ourselves on the shelf occasionally and renew our edges!”

PeopleIfsThinkingMenWellsMeanDoneMightCareAgeAmericaDiesEnergyNationsWorkLossPlansGoes OnBedGainsEuropeLaysEdgesOld AgeExcitementPrimeThinkerShelvesMorrowRobust
Book:Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations
Create image

“Whatever a man's age, he can reduce it several years by putting a bright-colored flower in his button-hole.”

MenYearsAgeFlowerHolesButtons
Book:MARK TWAIN: 12 Novels, 195 Short Stories, Autobiography, 10 Travel Books, 160+ Essays & Speeches (Illustrated): Including Letters & Biographies – The Complete Works of Mark Twain: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, The Innocents Abroad, Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Life on the Mississippi…
Create image

“As soon as a man recognizes that he has drifted into age, he gets reminiscent. He wants to talk and talk; and not about the present or the future, but about his old times. For there is where the pathos of his life lies - and the charm of it. The pathos of it is there because it was opulent with treasures that are gone, and the charm of it is in casting them up from the musty ledgers and remembering how rich and gracious they were.”

MenWantAgeRememberLyingGoneRichTreasureCharmCastingGraciousPathosOld Time
Book:Who Is Mark Twain?
Create image

“Man has been here 32,000 years. That it took a hundred million years to prepare the world for him is proof that that is what it was done for. I suppose it is, I dunno. If The Eiffel Tower were now to represent the world's age, the skin of paint on the pinnacle knob at its summit would represent man's share of that age; and anybody would perceive that the skin was what the tower was built for. I reckon they would, I dunno.”

IfsMenWorldYearsHas BeensDoneAgeScienceUniverseMillionsShareEvolutionHundredBuiltSkinsPaintProofPerceiveTowersSummitPinnacleEiffel TowerKnobsEiffel
Book:Mark Twain’s Book of Animals
Create image

“A man who keeps company with glaciers comes to feel tolerably insignificiant by and by. The Alps and the glaciers together are able to take every bit of conceit out of a man and reduce his self-importance to zero if he will only remain within the influence of their sublime presence long enough to give it a fair and reasonable chance to do its work.”

IfsMenGivingFeelsLongSelfEnoughAbleTogetherBitsChanceCompanyInfluenceHard WorkFairsImportanceReasonableZeroSublimeConceitSelf-importanceGlaciersAlps
Book:A Tramp Abroad
Create image

“The self taught man seldom knows anything accurately, and he does not know a tenth as much as he could have known if he had worked under teachers, and besides, he brags, and is the means of fooling other thoughtless people into going and doing as he himself has done.”

PeopleIfsKnowsMenMeanDoeSelfDoneKnownLearningTeacherTaughtEducationalBragSelf Taught
Book:Stormfield Edition of the Writings of Mark Twain [pseud.].: What is man? and other essays
Create image

“Hardly a man in the world has an opinion upon morals, politics or religion which he got otherwise than through his associations and sympathies. Broadly speaking, there are none but corn-pone opinions. And broadly speaking, Corn-Pone stands for Self-Approval. Self-approval is acquired mainly from the approval of other people. The result is Conformity.”

PeopleMenWorldSelfResultsMoralOpinionConformityAssociationApprovalCornApproval Of OthersSelf Approval
Book:The Portable Mark Twain
Create image

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. As in the words of Wayne Dyer, when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Sometimes to know with certainty that a particular thing is "true", will actually be the very thing that keeps you from attaining the things you seek to achieve.”

PeopleKnowsMenWayLooksLittlesSometimesEyeImaginationFocusInfluenceAchieveParticularHe ManInspirational LifeDependsClothesNakedCertaintyWayne
Author:Mark Twain
Create image

“The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. It is said that leaders are readers. However if they read trashy magazines for the majority of their time and they never run with the information that they glean from resourceful books, then they may as well have not taken any time to read at all. It is easier to stay out than get out.”

IfsMenWellsMaySaidBookRunningLeaderTakenInformationHe ManInspirational LifeReaderEasierAdvantageMajorityMagazinesGood BookResourceful
Author:Mark Twain
Create image

“He had an uncommon fondness for cats. As an old man summering in New Hampshire, Twain even rented kittens from a nearby farm to keep him company until he returned home. "If man could be crossed with the cat," said Twain, "it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat." There's always something about your success that displeases even your best friends.”

IfsMenSaidHomeCompanyHe ManInspirational LifeCatOld ManFarmsKittenUncommonYour Best FriendFondnessHampshireNew Hampshire
Author:Mark Twain
Create image