Mark Twain

I know the look of an apple that is roasting and sizzling on the hearth on a winter’s evening, and I know the comfort that comes of eating it hot, along with some sugar and a drench of cream… I know how the nuts taken in conjunction with winter apples, cider, and doughnuts, make old people’s tales and old jokes sound fresh and crisp and enchanting.

Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.

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

Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.

There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. Observe the ass, for instance: his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of feeling complimented when we are called an ass, we are left in doubt.

Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.

You must avoid sloth, that wicked siren.

No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.

Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one’s self?

Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster.

Hostesses who entertain much must make up their parties as ministers make up their cabinets, on grounds other than personal liking.

Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. Let them be your only diet, drink, and botanical medicines.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

For every benefit you receive a tax is levied.

Nature is full of freaks, and now puts an old head on young shoulders, and then takes a young heart heating under fourscore winters.

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

Far too many executives have become more concerned with the four P’s – pay, perks, power and prestige – rather than making profits for shareholders.

How hard you work matters more than how much you make.

To me the sole hope of human salvation lies in teaching Man to regard himself as an experiment in the realization of God, to regard his hands as God’s hand, his brain as God’s brain, his purpose as God’s purpose. He must regard God as a helpless Longing, which longed him into existence by its desperate need for an executive organ.