Mark Twain Quotes about Opportunity

Never miss an opportunity to shut up.

Communication, Opportunity, Missing

There is no security in life, only opportunity.

Life, Opportunity, Careers

Our inner strengths, experiences, and truths cannot be lost, destroyed, or taken away. Every person has an inborn worth and can contribute to the human community. We all can treat one another with dignity and respect, provide opportunities to grow toward our fullest lives and help one another discover and develop our unique gifts. We each deserve this and we all can extend it to others.

Mark Twain

Taken, Unique, Opportunity

Fortune knocks at every man's door once in a life.

Mark Twain

Opportunity, Men, Gambling

I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.

Mark Twain

Life, Opportunity, Able

Mark Twain (2016). “Mark Twain in Eruption (Abridged, Annotated)”, p.108, BIG BYTE BOOKS

If the desire to kill and the opportunity to kill came always together, who would escape hanging?

Mark Twain

Integrity, Opportunity, Desire

Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.221, Courier Corporation

If the desire to kill and the opportunity to kill always came together, who would escape hanging? Framed in a more positive light, this tells us also that if we wish to accomplish a particular thing then we need to increase our level of desire for that thing and to create or seek out the opportunities and right environment for it to happen without fail.

Mark Twain

Inspirational Life, Opportunity, Light

The symbol of the race ought to be a human being carrying an ax, for every human being has one concealed about him somewhere, and is always seeking the opportunity to grind it.

Mark Twain

Opportunity, Race, Grind

Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.187, Courier Corporation

Why was the human race created? Or at least why wasn't something creditable created in place of it? God had His opportunity. He could have made a reputation. But no, He must commit this grotesque folly - a lark which must have cost Him a regret or two when He came to think it over and observe effects.

Mark Twain

Regret, Opportunity, Thinking

Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain’s Letters & Speeches (Annotated Edition)”, p.787, Jazzybee Verlag

I think that the reason why we Americans seem to be so addicted to trying to get rich suddenly is merely because the opportunity to make promising efforts in that direction has offered itself to us with a frequency out of all proportion to the European experience.

Mark Twain

Opportunity, Thinking, Effort

Mark Twain (1994). “Tales, Speeches, Essays, and Sketches”, p.342, Penguin

The laws of Nature take precedence of all human laws. The purpose of all human laws is one - to defeat the laws of Nature. This is the case among all the nations, both civilized and savage. It is a grotesquerie, but when the human race is not grotesque it is because it is asleep and losing its opportunity.

Mark Twain

Opportunity, Race, Law

Mark Twain (2013). “Autobiography of Mark Twain”, p.127, Univ of California Press