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Mark Twain

Mark Twain Quotes

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Famous Mark Twain Quotes

“You need not expect to get your book right the first time. Go to work and revamp or rewrite it. God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God's adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed, by and by.”

NeedsWritingFirstsBookAttentionToo MuchReaderBedFirst TimeCeaseCommandCraftsLightningThunderExhibitsIntervalsAdjectivesThunder And Lightning
Book:Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations
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“The frankest and freest product of the human mind and heart is a love letter; the writer gets his limitless freedom of statement and expression from his sense that no stranger is going to see what he is writing.”

LoveWritingMindHumansHeartExpressionProductsLettersStrangerStatementsHuman MindHeart And MindLimitlessLove Letter
Book:Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review
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“The editor of a newspaper cannot be independent, but must work with one hand tied behind him by party and patrons, and be content to utter only half or two-thirds of his mind . writers of all kinds are manacled servants of the public. We write frankly and fearlessly, but then we "modify" before we print.”

WritingMindKindTwoHandsPartyBehindsHalfMediaThirdsIndependentNewspapersAll KindsServantPrintEditorsTiedPatronHands Tied
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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“I am trying to get the hang of this new fangled writing machine, but I am not making a shining success of it. However, this is the first attempt I have ever made & yet I perceive I shall soon & easily acquire a fine facility in its use. ... The machine has several virtues. I believe it will print faster than I can write. One may lean back in his chair & work it. It piles an awful stack of words on one page. It don't muss things or scatter ink blots around. Of course it saves paper.”

WritingTryingFirstsBelieveMayMadeI CanUseCoursesI BelieveVirtueFinePaperPagesMachinesShiningAwfulFasterPerceiveAcquireChairsWorking ItPrintInkFacilityTypewriters
Author:Mark Twain
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“An average English word is four letters and a half. By hard, honest labor I've dug all the large words out of my vocabulary and shaved it down till the average is three and a half... I never write metropolis for seven cents, because I can get the same money for city. I never write policeman, because I can get the same price for cop.... I never write valetudinarian at all, for not even hunger and wretchedness can humble me to the point where I will do a word like that for seven cents; I wouldn't do it for fifteen.”

WritingI CanHardThreeCitiesHalfFourHonestLaborLettersSevenHungerAverageHumbleCentsCopFifteenVocabularyPolicemenBecause I CanWretchednessMetropolisEnglish Words
Author:Mark Twain
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