Mark Twain

Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.

A man’s house burns down. The smoking wreckage represents only a ruined home that was dear through years of use and pleasant associations. By and by, as the days and weeks go on, first he misses this, then that, then the other thing. And when he casts about for it he finds that it was in that house. Always it is an essential – there was but one of its kind. It cannot be replaced. It was in that house. It is irrevocably lost. It will be years before the tale of lost essentials is complete, and not till then can he truly know the magnitude of his disaster.

By his father he is English, by his mother he is Americanto my mind the blend which makes the perfect man.

Better a broken promise than none at all.

If to be interesting is to be uncommonplace, it is becoming a question, with me, if there are any commonplace people.

A man can seldom – very, very, seldom – fight a winning fight against his training; the odds are too heavy.

He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses.

Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.

It’s so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don’t say it.

The connection between us runs so strong and deep. It’s like a steel cable stretching across the ocean bed, so many fathoms below, that even the most skilled and courageous of deep sea divers cannot reach it to cut it. It remains strong, silent, invisible, invincible.

There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man.

A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.

I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of all the heroes, for one true vision.

Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.

When speculation has done its worst, two and two still make four.

Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.

Short words are the best and old words when short are best of all.

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.

All his life has he looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was.

In nature nothing can be given. All things are sold.