Mark Twain

All say, How hard it is that we have to die – a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.

All you need is ignorance and confidence and the success is sure.

We had the sky up there, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss whether they was made or just happened.

Pessimism is only the name that men of weak nerve give to wisdom.

If man had created man, he would be ashamed of his performance.

Familiarity breeds contempt and children.

Grief is a process to go through, not a destination in which to wallow. In a process, you keep putting one foot in front of the other, and each little step is part of your healing.

The most closely organized groups and movements in the world are those which have been the least friendly to the people’s progress and liberty.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

History doesn’t mean dates and wars and textbooks to me; it means the unconquerable pioneer spirit of man.

Whatever your goal in life, the beginning is knowledge and experience- or, briefly work.

Forgiveness of those who have transgressed against you, or those you love, is not about them; it is about you. It is a gift to yourself.

The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.

If what you’re doing isn’t working, change it.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities.

Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.

My view is, first you get them to laugh, then you get them to listen. So I’m always game for a good joke, and I’m not so formal in this role. There’s very little that we can’t do that people wouldn’t appreciate.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.