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Mark Twain Quotes - Page 42

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It's an epitome of life. The first half of it consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity.

It's an epitome of life. The first half of it consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity.

Mark Twain
Life, Birthday, Getting Older
"Mark Twain's Letters".

Experience, the only logic sure to convince a diseased imagination and restore it to rugged health.

Mark Twain
Health, Imagination, Disease
Mark Twain, Bob Blaisdell (2013). “The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain”, p.4, Courier Corporation

Rags, wretchedness, poverty and dirt, those signs and symbols that indicate the presence of [Muslim] rule more surely than the crescent-flag itself, abound.

Mark Twain
Flags, Dirt, Poverty
Mark Twain (2007). “The Innocents Abroad”, p.28, Penguin

The Bible is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies. This Bible is built mainly out of fragments of older Bibles that had their day and crumbled to ruin. So it noticeably lacks in originality, necessarily. Its three or four most imposing and impressive events all happened in earlier Bibles; there are only two new things in it: hell, for one, and that singular heaven I have told you about.

Mark Twain
Clever, Lying, Blood

I do see that there is an argument against suicide: the grief of the worshipers left behind, the awful famine in their hearts, these are too costly terms for the release.

Mark Twain
Suicide, Grief, Heart
Mark Twain (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated)”, p.6914, Delphi Classics

Will a day come when the race will detect the funniness of these juvenilities and laugh at them—and by laughing at them destroy them? For your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, Money, Persuasion, Supplication, Persecution--these can lift at a colossal humbug,—push it a little— crowd it a little—weaken it a little, century by century: but only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand. - "The Chronicle of Young Satan," Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts

Mark Twain
Laughter, Blow, Race
The Mysterious Stranger ch. 10 (1916)

A home without a cat — and a well-fed, well-petted and properly revered cat — may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?

Mark Twain
Funny, Home, Humor
Pudd'nhead Wilson ch. 1 (1894)

If we only had some God in the country's laws, instead of being in such a sweat to get him into the Constitution, it would be better all around.

Mark Twain
Country, Law, Sweat
Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.230, Courier Corporation

The longing of my heart is a fairy portrait of myself: I want to be pretty; I want to eliminate facts and fill up the gap with charms.

Mark Twain
Heart, Want, Gaps

Men think they think upon the great political questions, and they do; but they think with their party, not independently; they read its literature, but not that of the other side

Mark Twain
Party, Men, Thinking
Mark Twain (1973). “What Is Man? and Other Philosophical Writings”, p.96, Univ of California Press

He liked to like people, therefore people liked him.

Mark Twain
Positive, People
Mark Twain, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Mark Twain: All 13 Novels, Short Stories, Poetry and Essays”, p.1499, GENERAL PRESS

Solomon, who was one of the Deity's favorites, had a copulation cabinet composed of seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. To save his life he could not have kept two of these young creatures satisfactorily refreshed, even if he had fifteen experts to help him. Necessarily almost the entire thousand had to go hungry for years and years on a stretch. Conceive of a man hardhearted enough to look daily upon all that suffering and not be moved to mitigate it.

Mark Twain
Men, Two, Years
Mark Twain (2008). “Letters from the Earth: Easyread Edition”, p.51, ReadHowYouWant.com

Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak.

Mark Twain
Responsibility, Patriotism, Speak
Mark Twain, Howard G. Baetzhold, Joseph B. Mccullough (1996). “The Bible According to Mark Twain”, p.88, Simon and Schuster

As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain from smoking when awake.

Mark Twain
Inspirational, Marijuana, Smoking
Mark Twain (2013). “Great Speeches by Mark Twain”, p.95, Courier Corporation

...heaven for climate, and hell for society.

Mark Twain
Heaven, Climate, Hell
Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.177, Courier Corporation

What ought to be done to the man who invented the celebrating of anniversaries? Mere killing would be too light.

Mark Twain
Funny, Anniversary, Hilarious
Mark Twain (2015). “Bite-Size Twain: Wit and Wisdom from the Literary Legend”, p.41, St. Martin's Press

It is governed by minorities, seldom or never by majorities. It suppresses its feelings and its beliefs and follows the handful that makes the most noise. Sometimes the noisy handful is right, sometimes wrong, but no matter, the crowd follows it.

Mark Twain
Animal, Feelings, Humanity
Mark Twain, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Mark Twain: All 13 Novels, Short Stories, Poetry and Essays”, p.1338, GENERAL PRESS

... the English alphabet is pure insanity..., It can hardly spell any word in the language with any degree of certainty.

Mark Twain
Insanity, Degrees, Alphabet
Mark Twain (2013). “Autobiography of Mark Twain”, p.268, Univ of California Press

In America, we hurry-which is well; but when the day's work is done, we go on thinking of losses and gains, we plan for the morrow, we even carry our business cares to bed with us...we burn up our energies with these excitements, and either die early or drop into a lean and mean old age at a time of life which they call a man's prime in Europe...What a robust people, what a nation of thinkers we might be, if we would only lay ourselves on the shelf occasionally and renew our edges!

Mark Twain
Work, Mean, Loss
Mark Twain, Caroline Thomas Harnsberger (2009). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.7, Courier Corporation

There is no such thing as material covetousness. All covetousness is spiritual. ...Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.

Mark Twain
Spiritual, Greed, Want
Mark Twain (1973). “What Is Man? and Other Philosophical Writings”, p.202, Univ of California Press

I don't believe there is anything in the whole earth that you can't learn in Berlin except the German language.

Mark Twain
Believe, German Language, Earth
Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.149, Courier Corporation

Of course, no man is entirely in his right mind at any time.

Mark Twain
Men, Mind, Courses
Mark Twain (2012). “The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories”, p.116, Courier Corporation

It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.

Mark Twain
Nature, Animal, Men
Mark Twain (2009). “Mark Twain’s Book of Animals”, p.304, Univ of California Press

I suppose, just as an honest man in politics shines more than he would elsewhere.

Mark Twain
Witty, Men, Shining
"Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations".

India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.

Mark Twain
Mother, Past, Men

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