Mark Twain

Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.

Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple many things which are involved in haunting and harassing difficulties and obscurities now.

Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.

It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.

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.

Principles aren’t of much account anyway, except at election time. After that you hang them up to let them season.

By common consent of all the nations and all the ages the most valuable thing in this world is the homage of men, whether deserved or undeserved.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it. We solicitously and apologetically caress and celebrate him, because he held on his way and scorned our disapprobation. The gods loved him because men hated him.

Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est (Knowledge Itself Is Power)

Beauty rests on necessities.

Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.

A perfectly healthy sentence, it is true, is extremely rare. For the most part we miss the hue and fragrance of the thought; as if we could be satisfied with the dews of the morning or evening without their colors, or the heavens without their azure.

The fickleness of the women I love is only equaled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.

Valor consists in the power of self recovery.

Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.

I have received no more than one or two letters in my life that were worth the postage.

Health is the condition of wisdom, and the sign is cheerfulness – an open and noble temper.

It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.