Mark Twain

The most difficult We do not deal in facts when we are contemplating ourselves.

I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.

Prosperity is the best protector of principle.

A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.

To cease smoking is the easiest thing I ever did; I ought to know because I’ve done it a thousand times.

Switzerland is simply a large, lumpy, solid rock with a thin skin of grass stretched over it.

If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.

It is a happy talent to know how to play.

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

Enthusiasm is the leaping lightning, not to be measured by the horse-power of the understanding.

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. The conviction of the rich that the poor are happier is no more foolish than the conviction of the poor that the rich are.

A jest often decides matters of importance more effectual and happily than seriousness.

Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self.

It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.

Is the parent better than the child into whom he has cast his ripened being? Whence, then, this worship of the past?

Have wholesome, but not costly Food, and be rather cleanly than dainty in ordering it.

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.

The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor.

I want to be free; to escape. I use my pen as oars; the paper as my boat. I fill these pages to keep me afloat. I ride the waves of turmoil, so I can paddle away to calmer seas.

Knowledge is power.

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.