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Quote by Mark Twain

“The only very marked difference between the average civilized man and the average savage is that the one is gilded and the other is painted.”

Quote by Mark Twain

Author

Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was a renowned American author and humorist in the 19th century. His works are characterized by humor, satire, and profound social insight, with notable novels such as 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' and 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'. more

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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.”

“Well, I really don't like heights. I don't get on the top deck of a double-decker because that's a bit high for me. I always feel that I'm going to hurl myself off, so heights are a problem.”

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“There is a great difference between feeding parties to wild beasts and stirring up their finer feelings in an inquisition. One is the system of degraded barbarians, the other of enlightened civilized people.”

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Book:The Innocents Abroad: or, The New Pilgrims' Progress

Source: The Innocents Abroad: or, The New Pilgrims' Progress

“Would it not be prudent to get our civilization tools together, and see how much stock is left on hand in the way of Glass Beads and Theology, and Maxim Guns and Hymn Books, and Trade Gin and Torches of Progress and Enlightenment (patent adjustable ones, good to fire villages with, upon occasion), and balance the books, and arrive at the profit and loss, so that we may intelligently decide whether to continue the business or sellout the property and start a new Civilization Scheme on the proceeds.”

Source: The Portable Mark Twain

“Is it, perhaps, possible that there are two kinds of Civilization-one for home consumption and one for the heathen market?”

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Book:King Leopold's Soliloquy

Source: King Leopold's Soliloquy

“There is no salvation for us but to adopt Civilization and lift ourselves down to its level.”

Levels Civilization Salvation Lifts

Book:Tales, Speeches, Essays, and Sketches

Source: Tales, Speeches, Essays, and Sketches

“Every civilization carries the seeds of its own destruction, and the same cycle shows in them all. The Republic is born, flourishes, decays into plutocracy, and is captured by the shoemaker whom the mercenaries and millionaires make into a king. The people invent their oppressors, and the oppressors serve the function for which they are invented.”

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Book:Mark Twain in eruption: hitherto unpublished pages about men and events

Source: Mark Twain in eruption: hitherto unpublished pages about men and events

“The peoples furthest from civilization are the ones where equality between man and woman are furthest apart-and we consider this one of the signs of savagery.”

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Book:Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations

Source: Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations

“My idea of our civilization is that it is a shoddy, poor thing and full of cruelties, vanities, arrogances, meannesses and hypocrisies.”

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Book:Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations

Source: Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations

“If you will notice, there is seldom a telegram in a paper which fails to show up one or more members & beneficiaries of our Civilization as promenading with his shirt-tail up & the rest of his regalia in the wash.”

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Book:Mark Twain-Howells Letters: The Correspondence of Samuel L. Clemens and William D. Howells, 1872-1910

Source: Mark Twain-Howells Letters: The Correspondence of Samuel L. Clemens and William D. Howells, 1872-1910